Drew McIntyre Reveals Vince McMahon Saved Him From Horrible Gimmick

Drew McIntyre reportedly came close to becoming a WWE runway model. He was willing to put in the effort to be a good employee and gain Vince McMahon’s trust before a last-minute shift saved him from making one of the worst mistakes of his career, at least that’s the character that was offered to him roughly 15 years ago.

In his autobiography “A Chosen Destiny: My Story,” which was published in 2021, McIntyre discussed a concept that was put in his direction. On WWE television, he claimed that he came close to becoming a runway male model and dubbed the concept “the worst of all time.” This was more of an admission that there was a team in WWE today with similar gimmicks to Maximum Male Models rather than a direct criticism of them no shred of that kind of character in his body. He noted the right gimmick is often someone’s real personality with the volume turned up. McIntyre had no idea how he was going to make it work.

When brought into then-Chairman Vince McMahon’s office, he pledged to make the most of the opportunity by saying he didn’t want to blow it. McIntyre claimed he had been working on being completely shredded for the role up until that meeting. However, he believes that McMahon changed his mind there and then in his office because Vince could detect that McIntryre wasn’t up to the task. “Mr. McMahon asked me for my opinion,” he continued. I answered, “Sir, if you like it, I can make it work.” My poker face was really unconvincing back then, so I’m not sure if he could tell that my heart wasn’t in it or if he saw something else in me, but he did notice something he made the instant decision to drop the 225-pound Runway Man and let me be more… myself.”

All Worked Out for McIntyre

A runway model gimmick might have done McIntyre in, despite the fact that his first stint in the WWE didn’t go as well as he had hoped and that it took him leaving and returning years later to develop into the character he is now. Some things are irreversible, and perhaps that gimmick was it for McIntyre. Thankfully, nobody will ever need to know because Vince’s decision to change his mind was probably best for everyone.