Drew McIntyre Reveals Terrible Gimmick He Could Have Debuted With

Despite the success he has found on WWE's main roster since his return to the company in 2017, Drew McIntyre also has plenty of history of being saddled with genuinely terrible creative.

But it could have been so, so much worse.

McIntyre initially debuted on WWE television in 2007 with British wrestling legend Dave Taylor in his corner. The Scotsman spent a brief amount of time on SmackDown and Raw before being sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling in 2008. In 2009, he would be introduced by Vince McMahon as 'The Chosen One' and hailed as a 'future World Champion' by the then chairman of the board.

'The Chosen One' Was Almost 'Runway Man'

Of course, 'The Chosen One' gimmick bombed, despite McMahon's best efforts and an Intercontinental Title reign for McIntyre, who would also briefly hold Tag Team Title gold with his opponent at Saturday Night's Main Event this weekend, Cody Rhodes.

But before 'The Chosen One' came along, McIntyre was pitched a very different creative.

During a recent interview with No-Contest Wrestling, the former World Heavyweight Champion revealed that he was pitched a different character, by the name of 'Runway Man', as his debut gimmick in WWE.

"The Runway Man. (laughs) I remember he pitched to me, John Laurinaitis, who was head of talent relations at the time, and telling me, you know what, Florida Championship Wrestling, which was there prior to NXT, we know today, the original developmental, and he built it up. I was listening to him describe the character and thought, ‘oh no, oh no, oh no.’ Then he went ‘the name, the Runway Man, you’re going to have your own model runway and you’re going to walk down like a model.'"

Naturally, McIntyre was not a fan of the proposed creative from Laurinaitis, who then pitched the idea to McMahon, but thankfully for the future WWE Champion, with no success.

Vince McMahon Knew Drew McIntyre Hated 'Runway Man'

"Oh my goodness. I was picturing in my head, basically all my dreams were going to hell," McIntyre continued, "The life’s work of a Scotsman, it was all going down the toilet. The next meeting after Johnny was to go to Vince himself and pitch this idea, and I kind of sat silent and Johnny pitched it to Vince, and I think Vince saw my face the whole time. He just said, ‘what do you think?’ (And I said) ‘whatever you need me to do, I’ll make it work.’

"But I had my head down the whole time and I think he read me like he doesn’t want to do this. Thankfully, they let me play closer to myself. But I learned years later, it was nowhere close to myself because it took me until I returned to WWE after getting fired, which we’ll probably talk about, before I finally found myself as a wrestler and as a human.”

Drew McIntyre — Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Following the failure of 'The Chosen One', McIntyre became part of 3 Man Band with Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal before eventually being released by WWE in 2014.

The Glaswegian would return to the independent scene for the next three years, including Insane Championship Wrestling in his native Scotland. He would also become TNA World Champion in 2017 before returning to WWE as part of the NXT roster.

In the seven years McIntyre has been back with WWE, he has won the NXT Title, the WWE Title twice, the World Heavyweight Championship, the Raw Tag Team Titles, and the 2020 Royal Rumble.

Not bad for a Runway Man.

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