Stephanie McMahon told Superstar to change his name minutes before his WWE debut
Drew McIntyre revealed on the premiere episode of WWE Network show Break It Down that Stephanie McMahon asked him to find a new surname for his character just minutes before he debuted on SmackDown in 2007.
The former Intercontinental Champion was originally due to appear on WWE programming using his real name, Drew Galloway, but the company’s Chief Brand Officer requested that he quickly think of a different name to use.
“Stephanie McMahon says to myself and [WWE producer] Michael Hayes, ‘Is Drew Galloway your real name?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and she was like, ‘Ah, how about you change that?’ And I’m on in legitimately two matches, maybe ten minutes max, so myself and Michael Hayes ran straight to Talent Relations.”
After going through a list of Scottish names on Wikipedia, they decided to choose McIntyre as his new surname, with McDonald also being considered as a possible name.
The ring announcer was informed just in time to introduce him as Drew McIntyre, but archive footage shows that the titantron used the name Drew Galloway as the Scot made his way to the ring.
What happened on Drew McIntyre’s debut?
Accompanied by British wrestling legend Dave Taylor, Drew McIntyre quickly defeated Brett Major (aka Zack Ryder) with a roll-up in a match on SmackDown which lasted just 2 minutes and 33 seconds.