Opinion: What WWE Should avoid doing with Drew McIntyre as WWE Champion
The final of WrestleMania 36 was a pretty solid affair. Much like the previous night, there were a couple of high-profile matches during the show. The opening match of the night saw Charlotte Flair score an upset by defeating Rhea Ripley to win the NXT Women's Championship for the second time, thereby becoming only the second superstar, after Shayna Baszler, to earn the distinction. We also saw Edge defeat Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing Match and John Cena finally fell to 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Funhouse Match.
The main event of the night saw Drew McIntyre defeat Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship. In what was a typical Brock Lesnar match, McIntyre managed to survive an early onslaught by The Beast and proceed to hit Lesnar with a flurry of Claymore Kicks to become the first-ever British WWE Champion.
This is the second year in a row where Lesnar has lost a Championship match at WrestleMania to the Royal Rumble winner. Last year, Lesnar was defeated by Seth Rollins in the opening match of WrestleMania 35 for the Universal Championship. Rollins' title reign ended up being quite disappointing and while there were a variety of reasons for that, the chief among them was how he was booked as a top babyface Champion.
McIntyre's rise as top babyface on RAW has been quite rapid. Up until a few months ago, the Scotsman was languishing in the mid-card. But, following a brief layoff due to an injury, the Chosen One returned with new vigor and hasn't looked back ever since.
One of the biggest critiques of WWE over the past few years has been the company's booking of its top babyface champions. There have numerous title reigns that fell short of expectations during this period with the biggest one being Seth Rollins' reign as the Universal Champion.
Unlike McIntyre, who had the rocket strapped to him within the past few months, Rollins was always a top star in the company, placed in high-profile feuds and was a major player in the company. He had the best year of his career in 2018 where he essentially became the "workhorse" on Monday Nights. Rollins was stealing shows left, right and center and putting on great matches every week.
Rollins was unquestionably the most over male superstar in the company during this period. The fans were firmly behind The Beastslayer as he went to battle Lesnar at WrestleMania 35. But, following his victory over Lesnar, Rollins' title reign didn't exactly turn out to be as fruitful as one had hoped. Rollins' failing as a babyface champion was quite shocking to see as fans had wanted to see him in this position for a long time.
While many have argued that his social media antics eventually led to his downfall, the company's booking didn't help him either. He was put in almost two-three segments on every RAW. The company's over-exposing of Rollins played a huge role in fans turning on him. Rollins had to cut some overtly scripted promos every Monday Night, which failed t connect with the fans. The company put him in feuds that fans weren't overly excited about.
WWE should avoid doing this with McIntyre. Like nearly ever other wrestler on the roster, McIntyre is someone who has some limitations (except for Keith Lee, obviously.) The company should look to accentuate his strengths and hide his weaknesses. Putting him in multiple segments throughout the show should be a strict no-no. They should avoid overly scripting his promos so that he comes off as more believable and genuine while he is talking.
WWE also tends to humanize their babyfaces to such a degree where fans lose interest in their character. The company should present McIntyre as a badass babyface who takes names and kicks tail and nothing else. But, most importantly, they should put him in feuds against some credible opponents who can help raise his stock as a champion.
Given WWE's recent track record of booking babyface champions, it is hard to say where exactly McIntyre will be in the next six months. We just hope and pray that it doesn't go the Seth Rollins way, which will be quite sad considering how good of a story McIntyre's resurgence to the top has been.