The following was issued to us:
Drew McIntyre recently sat down with Kenny McIntosh from Inside The Ropes and discussed his match of the year against CM Punk at WWE Bad Blood.
Exclusive: Drew McIntyre Elaborates On Mindset Ahead Of Hell In A Cell Match Against CM Punk
Drew McIntyre spoke about his feud of the year with CM Punk in 2024, which culminated in a brutal but universally praised Hell in a Cell match. McIntyre addressed his mindset heading into Hell in a Cell and how they both had the chance to put on a match that was both great and violent:
“To pay all this work off with a match that justifies how the story is built. It literally is built to a blood match. I can’t remember the last time that a story was built that way. I don’t believe there are many stories ever of those real, intricate details and real feelings. You have to look at The Bloodline stuff to get that detailed storytelling and real emotion that had built from the first match to the second match and to the Cell match. Like, “Wow, this is a real blood feud”.
We had all that aura around the Cell again instead of having to have two Cell matches randomly just because the name of the pay-per-view is Hell in the Cell. We really have a chance not just to have a great match, but to have a violent match. That’s what I was thinking.”
McIntyre also spoke about how both he and Punk knew that they were going to have a very physical match that would also restore the reputation of the Hell in a Cell match in the process:
“I’m sure it’s what Punk was thinking. We’re both very good at our job, no matter what we feel about each other, and we knew to just go in there and really go for it. Don’t have to like each other, but happy with that, and the fans would think it was one of the craziest feuds and matches of all time, and restore the prestige and aura around the Hell in the Cell match so it doesn’t feel like just another match again.
I felt that within three minutes it probably felt like we’d done that. This is not the same. If you watch it with a trained eye, you can see we’re not in there just doing the first and the second thing we’ve planned backstage. No, we’re two professionals. We’ve got certain feelings with each other. We’ll say sorry or not sorry later. We both get it. Let’s go in and beat the absolute crap out of each other. And that’s exactly what we did.”
