Five World Titles and not a single person has ever paid to watch him defend one of them.
Highlights
- Drew McIntyre finally won the World Title with fans in attendance at WrestleMania, losing it to Damian Priest minutes later.
- It has since been highlighted that McIntyre is now a five-time World Champion but has never defended a World Title in front of paying fans.
- Two reigns during the pandemic, two during TNA’s Universal era, and now one that only lasted a few minutes.
Drew McIntyre finally got the moment he has fought for and deserved for so long at WrestleMania 40. A World Title win with fans in attendance. The third time McIntyre has been a World Champion in WWE, but his prior two wins both took place during the pandemic when fans weren’t allowed in the building. Even though McIntyre then lost the title again moments later, that monkey is finally off his back. However, another, potentially even worse one has replaced it.
Five World Titles, No Paid Fans
Noted by Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), McIntyre is now a five-time World Champion when you include his two title wins in TNA. However, despite winning World Titles on five separate occasions, The Scottish Psychopath has never defended a World Title in front of paying fans.
Drew McIntyre Still Hasn’t Signed A New WWE Deal Despite Brief World Title Win
The Scottish Psychopath still hasn’t committed his future to the company.
McIntyre’s first two World Title wins in WWE are accounted for. Not only did he win them without fans in attendance, but he lost them before live audiences were allowed back in the building. That means every single time the Scot defended the title, no one was there live to watch him do it. That wasn’t the case in TNA, however, both McIntyre’s World Title reigns under his previous employer happened when the promotion was running shows at Universal in Orlando.
Fans Watched On For Free
For those unaware of how shows worked during that era of TNA, people at Universal were free to wander in and out of the show whenever they liked. The price of admission was included in your park ticket, meaning no one in the crowd had specifically paid to come watch wrestling. That means McIntyre’s wins and subsequent defenses in TNA were also for the benefit of fans who technically hadn’t paid a penny to watch him do it.
That brings us up to WrestleMania 40 and McIntyre’s fifth World Title win. Lasting a matter of minutes, Damian Priest cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and took the title McIntyre had just won before he ever had the chance to defend it. There’s an argument to be made that McIntyre technically did defend the title, even though the match was impromptu and lasted about ten seconds. I’m not sure if McIntyre would prefer that stat to stand, or if he’d rather the five title reigns with no one paying to see him defend the gold factoid remain in place instead.
