WWE's five Scottish Champions discuss being 'one in a million' in Virtual Roundtable
At WrestleMania 36, Drew McIntyre wrote his name into the history books by defeating former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar to become the first-ever Scottish and first-ever British WWE Champion!
Over that same weekend, though, Nikki Cross would also win the Tag Team Championships alongside Alexa Bliss, and the pair would etch their name into Scottish wrestling folklore alongside NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray, and NXT UK Tag Team Champions Wolfgang and Mark Coffey.
When you take into account that the population in Scotland is only five million, having five WWE champions is truly an impressive feat - with each Superstar earning the right to say they're truly one in a million!
At 3 PM today, NXT UK announcer and commentator Andy Shepherd will go live on WWE’s YouTube and social channels for the first-ever WWE Virtual Roundtable, named WWE Virtual Roundtable: Scottish Champions, where he will interview all five of the Scots currently holding gold in WWE about their respective journeys to the top.
Of the feat, Drew McIntyre says:
"Out of five million people to have five champions, one in a million, that was a pretty cool fact to find out the day after WrestleMania. It wasn’t until the next day, until someone had created a graphic with all the Scottish Champions, that I literally couldn’t believe it. "
The history-making Drew McIntyre goes on to elaborate on both his journey and Scotland's journey to the top of the mountain.
"I couldn’t believe that I was a WWE Champion for one. When I think back, there were no Scottish Champions, there was nobody in Scotland in WWE. That just wasn’t a thing."
You can watch the entire Virtual Roundtable simply by clicking the video below.
WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Nikki Cross also opened up about the graphic that appeared online...
“When you saw the graphic of the five of us being Champions I was like ‘we’re a boy band or a girl band or even like Steps!’ For me it was like, 'Yes, we’re a pop band!”"
Cross would open up on the inspiration of Drew McIntyre.
“I started watching WWE when I was ten, everything seemed so far away and a bit far-fetched so Drew going and doing it made it possible. I think that’s grown everyone’s confidence in getting your name out there, which we all have done. Seeing Drew do it just made you realise you can do it if you work really hard.”
Kay Lee Ray. the current NXT UK Women's Champion would go on to say how great it is to see people from your home country get what they've always dreamed of - but that the only thing that the five have in common is being Scottish and being "ace" wrestlers!
"There must be something in the water here, we’re different people, we’re different wrestlers so it’s hard to pinpoint something what we’ve all really got in common apart from being ace wrestlers!”
You can check out my interview with Kay Lee Ray below, in which the Scottish Superstar targets Becky Lynch!
Meanwhile, the NXT UK Tag Team Champions were also very complimentary of Drew McIntyre, with Wolfgang saying Drew was "always focused 100% that he was going to become a WWE Champion" having said so since he was 16 years old, confirming that he - and everyone else - knew it was only a matter of time.
"I’ve always believed him, everyone that’s met him has believed him too.”
Wolfgang goes on to say that all five Champions lived within the same radius and that he and Nikki Cross went to high school together.
“The five of us lived within the same radius, Nikki and I actually went to the same high school and I was in class with her older sister. It’s crazy that two people from the same school can make it with the one dream, to make it to the WWE, so congratulations, Nikki!”
Meanwhile, Wolfgang's tag team partner Mark Coffey said, being a fan since he was four years old, he thought it was a dream that "would never really happen" but that he now feels validated.
“When I first signed my [WWE] contract, I was just buzzing, my family were pretty chuffed for me. I’ve been a fan since I was about four years old so you just think it’s a dream which will never really happen. When we actually got there you feel kind of validated for giving up all the weeks and weekends for how many years. I was about eight years in before I got signed.”
Watch the full edition of ‘WWE Virtual Roundtable: Scottish Champions’ here.