By Haydn Gleed, Prowrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
There has never been a British world or universal champion in the history of WWE. You may know that already or you might be shocked by that statement. Considering the UK is either the second or third biggest market for WWE depending on who you talk to, it is quite shocking. Davey Boy Smith, William Regal, and Wade Barrett are just a few of the names to come from my beautiful shores to have challenged and ultimately came up short of the title. Heading into WrestleMania Night Two, Drew McIntyre is the latest who can break that duck, and based on the WWE Chronicles documentary on WWE Network, I believe it more than ever.
WWE booking 101 states that the babyface championship crowning moment always happens at the end of WrestleMania. There are rare exceptions, but sending the crowd home happy is the typical logic. Because of the circumstances of the world as they are now, there was starting to be a niggling doubt that they might save McIntyre winning for somewhere down the road when there’s a crowd in attendance. But the fact this documentary has been released when it was and the main narrative being overcoming personal and professional adversity and making a comeback, there’s no doubt in my mind that the UK will finally have a World Champion.
The documentary itself is interesting, yet becomes a little repetitive. Don’t get me wrong, the subject matter is fascinating and adding in the coronavirus situation really excelled and heightened the narrative of a comeback that was being pushed, but by the end of the 40-minute documentary, I wanted to scream “I get it!”
Considering what they could have done to really push the story forward it’s disappointing. Considering their working relationship with ICW where McIntyre, wrestling as Drew Galloway, started his comeback after being released by WWE, some of the footage of him in The Garage (ICW’s home venue) with a few hundred people would have shown that he started from a low level. Also, I’m sure Impact Wrestling would have been thrilled to sell or trade some footage of him wrestling under the TNA banner. Perhaps this footage was not included because McIntyre has been a champion in both companies, which doesn’t fit the underdog hardworking story they are telling. This is also my guess as to why no NXT footage was shown. After all, if they showed him being a world champion, then it would make his comment about never being a world champion seem like a lie.
On the positive side of things, McIntyre comes across as an incredibly likable and well liked guy. As a viewer, you do come away wanting him to achieve victory at WrestleMania 36 (he also has a beautiful cat, which makes him even more likable to me!). At one point they show his interaction with fans at a signing and he came off really well with how genuine and happy he seemed to interact with everyone.
Would I recommend this documentary? Yes and no. If this was a shortened to a 20 minute retrospective without his story of redemption being drilled into your head and the fat cut out, then it would have been a passable documentary with some really interesting content. My hope is one day they produce a full hour documentary and include the footage from the past from inside and outside WWE, as the full story is inspirational and deserves more than a one note documentary, which is how this came across at times.
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