WWE has major Drew McIntyre wild card to play as CM Punk Seth Rollins WrestleMania hype grows

The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle . Rhea Ripley’s chats with Drew McIntyre back in October could be more meaningful than we ever imagined at the time. It led to McIntyre loosely joining The Judgment Day for their WarGames match at Survivor Series, but what if it was also just the start of a seven month WrestleMania and Money in the Bank story arc for the two time WWE champion? Let’s look at the evidence.

Damian Priest has been Mr. Money in the Bank since July and has had multiple cash in attempts thwarted before becoming official — the three most recently by McIntyre, including during his World Heavyweight championship match at Day 1 versus Seth Rollins on Raw. Monday, all Priest did was standup ringside and McIntyre emerged from the crowd to shut him down ahead of their match next week.

Priest, who wasn’t keen on teaming up with McIntyre from the start, has mentioned to Ripley about removing him as a threat, but Mami dismissed him a week ago. Who are the other two people McIntyre has most recently had major interactions with? First was Rollins, who has beaten McIntyre twice in championship matches in the past two and a half months.

McIntyre, who has an exchange with Cody Rhodes on Monday too, believes he should have won both — with just a foot on the rope as he attempted a pin keeping him from gold at Day 1. The other is CM Punk, as the two had a tense and heated exchange on Raw last week. It ended with Punk telling McIntrye he would eliminate him from the Royal Rumble.

It leaves McIntyre, who has continually hammered home he wants to be a world champ for the first time with fans in attendance, with a clear story and a bit of a vendetta against each member of the Word Heavyweight championship picture. Now the two most powerful words in wrestling take over. What if… Punk wins the Rumble and he and Rollins — as long as the reported injury he suffered on Monday isn’t too serious — get to finish their goals of main eventing WrestleMania.

What if after next Monday’s match is just the start and to get rid of the McIntyre problem Priest or Ripley is brazen enough to put his Money in the Bank contract on the line in a match either at Elimination Chamber, the Raw before WrestleMania or at WrestleMania itself? McIntyre won’t stop any more cash in attempts if Priest wins, but R Truth costs him the match.

What if Rollins’ main event WrestleMania moment is spoiled the same way he had his first, by getting cashed in on like he did to Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31? What if, McIntyre cashes in and pins Punk to win? That way Rollins was never pinned for the title and “The Best in the World” will have some adversity to overcome instead of becoming a champion right away.

McIntyre makes good on finishing his story and has potential programs with Rollins, Punk and Priest coming out of WrestleMania. It may not happen. It may just be me just fantasy booking. But the story points have been laid out for it if WWE is to go that way. The beauty of Jack Perry’s return is it’s the opposite of how AEW has handled comebacks from controversy.

Instead of glossing over it or ignoring it as it did after All Out 2022 and All In 2023 — and maybe legally they had to — they are leaning into it. The full video of Jack Perry's surprise return on Battle in the Valley #njpw #aew pic.twitter.com/3CVJrFVytV Perry, after being suspended for his actions with CM Punk at Wembley Stadium last summer, returned after four plus months at New Japan’s Battle in the Valley on Saturday with long hair and a beard to attack Shota Umino.

Perry ripped up his AEW contract and wore an armband with “scapegoat” on it. This is far more interesting than him just returning straight to AEW and it blurs the line of reality. It was the highlight of a Saturday night that saw old faces in new places. Dana Brooke debuted as Ashley by Elegance and Nic Nemeth ended the show at TNA Hard to Kill by confronting and attacking new TNA world champion Moose.

Nemeth, who has labeled himself “The Most Wanted Man,” now has storylines in New Japan with IWGP Global champion David Finlay, TNA and will also face Matt Cardona in GCW in Los Angeles on Feb.3. Hard to Kill was a fine show, but more needs to be done for fans to look at the brand any differently than they did as Impact.

Battle in the Valley on the other hand was a ton of fun and really continued New Japan’s hot start to 2024. MUSTAFA ALI HAS CHALLENGED HIROMU TAKAHASHI! Windy City Riot April 12: https://t.co/UuTuvLOJmn LIVE on @fitetv ! https://t.co/yevfxDp7nw #njpw #njbitv #njriot pic.twitter.com/waEUa7Vorl Mustafa Ali, who everyone should keep an eye on, called out Hiromu Takahashi.

Matt Riddle is back tagging with Jeff Cobb. Eddie Kingston may have begun Gabe Kidd’s ascent with a great match and post match angle. Also, I haven’t watched a ton of Guilia matches, but her clash with Trish Adoa confirmed the hype for me and why WWE is reportedly interested in her. WWE’s booking of Jinder Mahal and AEW’s booking of Abadon and Hook for their title matches all made sense to me.

Not sure why that needed to spark a whole uproar on X that got out of hand and included the USA Network account, Tony Khan, Eric Bischoff, Dax Harwood and even Mahal himself before he deleted his post last week. https://t.co/gxQOb6Hlvm The Bloodline has never felt less dangerous and it’s a problem for Roman Reigns.

His being home left Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa outnumbered and eventually decimated by Randy Orton, LA Knight and AJ Styles despite Sikoa’s strategic efforts. Will Sikoa and Uso hold this against Reigns down the road or will The Rock say Reigns abandoned his family? The NXT North American championship felt like it needed a fresh start having spent most of the year on Dominik Mysterio and Dragon Lee being a transitional champ after Wes Lee’s injury.

So Obi Femi’s cash in to end the show delivered that, and the dude has all the skills to blossom into a star for the brand. If Sting’s last match is him and Darby Allin vs. The Young Bucks — who returned looking straight out of Spy vs. Spy — then you’d have to think the Icon goes out a winner at Revolution.

The win would just be short term heat for The Bucks, who don’t need it. Also, there is no reason for Sting to be Scorpion Death dropping Powerhouse Hobbs through two tables off the Daily’s Place ramp. This was the second straight week we saw a segment take place away from the arena on WWE. First a club and now Tyler Bate and Butch are meeting for coffee.

It’s a refreshing story device the company has underutilized outside NXT for far too long. Trinity lost her TNA Knockouts championship clean to Jordynne Grace, who is as good an any woman in the business right now, with Mercedes Mone and Bayley in attendance. Let the WWE and Royal Rumble return speculation officially commence.

A post shared by KNOCKOUTS WORLD CHAMPION (@trinity_fatu) Seeing Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, and the team of Candice LeRae and Indy Hartwell — despite their wonky finish — all gaining momentum in their respective tag team divisions is a beautiful thing. I know Sammy Guevara has made a name for himself taking some insane bumps and the one he took this week was equally nuts, but his stock isn’t gonna rise until he gets beyond being the bump guy.

What is Sammy thinking?!!! Watch #AEWBOTB9 NOW on TNT! @IAmJericho | @sammyguevara | @starkmanjones | @TheCaZXL pic.twitter.com/b0Jn7hTLOc Josh Alexander and Alex Hammerstone had one of the better matches at Hard to Kill. As good as Hammerstone looked, I’m not sure I agree with him losing his debut match in the company, even if he isn’t signed.

Found it interesting that we saw sides of Becky Lynch and Xavier Woods we rarely see on Monday. For Lynch, usually the boastful Man, it was self doubt about being able to beat Rhea Ripley — you actually reassured her potential challenger. For Woods, it was a viciousness. Maybe it was the blood, but he seemed so much more intense facing off against Lugwig Kaiser.

pic.twitter.com/oyVjNJXkC6 Extra: Lee Fitting, whom WWE hired to replace Kevin Dunn as Head of Media and Production, was let go by ESPN last summer. And according to The Post’s Andrew Marchand , ESPN’s fake Emmy scandal factored into that. Does this mean the Slammys are coming back?! Extra. Extra: Fun stat.

Since defeating John Cena at Crown Jewel, Solo Sikoa is 0 18, including live events. R Truth, WWE Truth is becoming the most entertaining thing on “Monday Night Raw” and this week felt like it went to another level with WWE leaning into the huge boost in merchandise sales he’s seen while releasing a new shirt in the middle of the show.

Speechless right now. @RonKillings @ArcherofInfamy #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/HgQvkRTSTC Truth handing out wads of cash as their cut to members of The Judgment Day — a faction he believes he’s in, but is not — before having a match against them should give fans hope that Truth is going to be a major player, like Sami Zayn was last year, in the faction’s storyline going into WrestleMania season.

Nebraska is real and it SUCKS pic.twitter.com/VHDsnhPbJh Samoa Joe vs. Hook, AEW World championship on AEW Dynamite (Wednesday, 8 p.m., TBS) Hook will not be dethroning Samoa Joe, but it is the new champion’s first title defense and the rising star’s first crack at a major championship. Hook and Joe wrestle a very similar style with pretty much the same finisher so it will be curious the story they chose to tell.

It’s a potential career accelerating moment for Hook. Mickie James is joining Ohio Valley Wrestling as Creative Director and Head of Female Talent as well as Executive Producer of OVW television shows..