“In terms of words or scripts, we’re not learning anything half the time, just going out there and saying what feels right.”
In an interview with JOE, WWE superstar Drew McIntyre hit back at claims that wrestling is ‘fake’ and ‘scripted’.
The first British WWE Champion in history, McIntyre hails from Ayr in Scotland and always harboured ambitions of becoming a professional wrestler from a young age.
So much so, he once purchased a manual entitled How To Enter The Exciting World Of Pro Wrestling, written by Percy Pringle – better known as Paul Bearer, former manager of Kane and The Undertaker.
In this book, Pringle reveals many of the secrets of pro wrestling – such as how storylines are written and matches are structured.
McIntyre had no problem explaining what he learned from the book ahead of the publication of his own autobiography, A Chosen Destiny, out on April 22nd.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsZ0IEhgR_/
In A Chosen Destiny, McIntyre writes: “I learned everything from these books: how things are created, the way matches are structured. It tapped into the psychology of a live crowd and explained the secret words used by wrestlers among themselves.”
The Scot said the same when we spoke last week over Zoom. It was rare to hear a high-ranking WWE star speak so openly about the pre-determined nature of the business.
While professional wrestling is choreographed with a fixed outcome, a large portion of a WWE show is not scripted at all.
This was particularly evident back in 2018 on a live episode of RAW, when Seth Rollins implied that Drew McIntyre had inappropriate relations with sheep.
The fact WWE (for the most part) isn’t scripted will come as a surprise to fans, critics and even those in the film industry.
“We’re live action stuntmen,” McIntyre said.
“We’re going out there and improvising right in front of the crowd. If things aren’t working we have to adjust on the fly.
“In terms of words or scripts, we’re not learning anything half the time, just going out there and saying what feels right.”
Drew McIntyre falls from the steel cage during his Hell In A Cell match with Randy Orton. (Credit: WWE)Such attributes have caught the eye of A-list film stars.
“I can say from experience now that Hollywood actors have come into our shows, been given a script before and have then come up to me and said ‘Is this normal? We get a script so much further in advance.’
“I was like ‘yeah, that’s normal. You just have to go out there and feel it.'”
Weirdly, professional actors haven’t always handled that experience well, according to McIntyre.
“They might say ‘I don’t know what to do, I’m gonna panic’. And sure enough, they go out there and they panic when they hear the crowd.
“It’s cool to say ‘this guy has won a bunch of acting awards and freaks out when he goes out there’. There really is an art to this.”
Professional wrestling is often labelled ‘fake’ and ‘scripted’ by critics. Social media has only exacerbated the problem.
“If it takes @Tyson_Fury vs @DMcIntyreWWE to get the UK that big WWE pay-per-view, then I’m all about it.”
Drew McIntyre explains what it means to be the first-ever British WWE Champion. pic.twitter.com/5vZXv5vDDz
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) July 23, 2020
When asked what he makes of such remarks, McIntyre said: “I just hope I get the chance [to read troll comments].
“So much goes into making what we do as believable as possible.
“But about it being ‘fake’… Number one, if you find out how to defy gravity, tell this guy first. That’d be nice.
“Two… there’s an art that goes into making this believable. Live action stunts, listening to the crowd, improvising and trying to keep the crowd engaged.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing in the ring it looks crap physically and two, the fans are just gonna be sitting on their hands. That’s the worst feeling in the world.”
Fellow WWE superstar Randy Orton recently took Soulja Boy to task on Twitter after the rapper branded wrestling ‘fake’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CML0sO-B682/
Social media is a powerful tool for communicating with a rapidly-expanding audience, but it has arguably made being a WWE superstar harder – a fact McIntyre agreed with, “100 percent”.
Not only is there now an army of trolls to deal with, but social media makes it difficult to maintain the mystique that professional wrestling gimmicks need in order to grow.
McIntyre said: “I remember growing up watching Kane, you’d never see him without his mask on, only in the magazines or with a towel on his head in airports. This was before camera phones or when people would see him in the gym either.”
He is considerate about what he posts on social media platforms, so as to not let the mask slip too far. Some wrestlers are less careful, however.
Sighing, McIntyre said: “A lot of superstars have gone with the whole, ‘we’re actors, so here’s my real name on my social media. I play this character on TV…’
“Our industry is different. We’re 52 weeks a year, we’re non-stop, fans want to be emotionally invested in superstars. Even if they know how it ‘works’, don’t throw it in their face.”
A Chosen Destiny by Drew McIntyre is published by Ebury on 22nd April 2021.
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