Drew McIntyre Returns to WWE

Drew McIntyre, who suffered an injury last summer at SummerSlam and has been out of action since, returned to Monday Night Raw this week, teaming with Dolph Ziggler to take out The Titus Brand.

WWE is running its Superstar Shakeup this week, with more roster moves expected on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live. But for Monday night, the biggest acquisition for Raw might have been Ziggler and McIntyre, who was joining the brand from NXT.

McIntyre, of course, was supposed to be the chosen one when he first debuted 10 years ago. Even today, McIntyre still looks like a top guy and main-event player.

For now, it seems that Ziggler and McIntyre will be part of Raw‘s tag team division. That’s smart, considering how poorly booked Ziggler was on SmackDown and McIntyre has been away from the ring for eight months and might need to be able to ease himself back into a full-time schedule.

Visually, on television, Ziggler and McIntyre look like Shawn Michaels and Diesel when they were tag team champions in 1994. Ziggler is the smaller wrestler who can fly around the ring and bump for just about anyone. Galloway is the big man who can put heat on the babyfaces. Now, McIntyre is a better wrestler than Nash and he’s far more athletic, but they visually look similar, right down to the goatee and long dark hair.

This team could be kept together for years, but what’s more likely is that McIntyre breaks off into a singles run within a year. That’s a good thing, if it happens. McIntyre looks like and carries himself like a top guy. He’s someone WWE can build around, whether he’s a babyface or a heel. His run with Impact Wrestling was good, and the only part of his game that probably needs some refining is his promo; it’s not bad, he just falls into the trap where wrestlers yell a lot.

McIntyre’s ring work is superb and his size really makes him stand point, especially someone who is that big and that athletic.

Eventually I see Ziggler turning on McIntyre, and Drew getting a nice run as a babyface near or in the main event. He has all the tools. WWE just has to find a way to get him there.