Drew McIntyre opens up about Survivor Series, brand supremacy, and the lack of stakes associated with the WWE's fall classic.
The Survivor Series is WWE's second-longest running pay-per-view event, behind only WrestleMania. Through the years, the event has fluctuated in importance and meaning. Originally, the Survivor Series consisted of only 5-on-5 tag team matches with the goal being teams of five striving to survive.
In 2016, Survivor Series became the event where Raw and SmackDown would collide to determine which WWE brand is superior. With multiple matches consisting of The Best of Raw facing the best of SmackDown, many feel that it is important that the people representing each brand have a close association with the brand.
Starting in 2019, WWE began hosting the annual draft right before Survivor Series leaving very little time for some of the representatives on each side to develop a true passion for their brand.
Drew McIntyre, somebody who was synonymous with Monday Night Raw up until this most recent draft is now commenting on the concept of brand Supremacy and he says that at Survivor Series, even though he will be representing SmackDown, he's not fighting for anything but his own status in the WWE rankings.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Drew McIntyre explained how he views Survivor Series as another opportunity to build momentum for another World Championship run.
"I've got SmackDown to get through and a live event on Saturday, so I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself. I see it as an awesome opportunity with ten of the top superstars in WWE and I know a lot of people are like, 'What's the point, you just moved from Raw to SmackDown and back and forth. Fight for bragging rights and brand supremacy.' I'm not fighting for bragging rights or brand supremacy, I'm fighting for Drew McIntyre to be a sole survivor so I can, 'I did the thing,' and rack up more momentum and more equity. My goal is to keep doing that until eventually, the time is right to fight for the title and take on Roman Reigns. That time is not right now. He is on a different level. He always talks about it and it's true. I want to keep building that momentum and equity. Things like surviving on Sunday at Survivor Series helps Drew McIntyre. We are a team, but there are individual efforts as well."
Drew McIntyre also discussed the idea they're being added incentive for the teams to win at Survivor Series saying that he likes Xavier Woods' idea of the remaining sole survivors competing against one another for an opportunity to be the number 30 entrant in the Royal Rumble.
"The idea of building momentum and being one of the survivors is cool, but I would like to see the stakes raised slightly and just make the particular match more compelling because that's what it is all about for drawing people in. 'They won, cool, I want to see them keep winning,' we could raise the stakes. I have a few ideas, but I saw [Xavier] Woods' idea and I thought that was pretty clever. I know he always has some other ideas up his sleeve. The losing team has a five-way to figure out the fire five and the person left last would be first in the Rumble and the winning team fight in a five-way to decide the last five and the last man standing would be number 30 in the Rumble. I thought that was pretty interesting."
Although Drew McIntyre does light Xavier Woods' idea about potential stakes for the upcoming Survivor Series event, he's openly addressing Xavier Woods trying to step on his toes as captain of the team.
"We're at odds already. It was announced that I'm basically the captain, I never said that, I just said 'lead the charge.' There was no captain, I was announced first. Then Woods took umbrage to that and made clear he's the king and I'm like, 'Come on man, let's not do this.' We know what we have to do, the one thing we always try to do in WWE, WE HAVE TO CO-EXIST! We can't be fighting amongst ourselves."
No matter what happens and whatever team wins, Fightful will have live coverage of WWE Survivor Series on Sunday, November 21, as it airs on Peacock.
