Mick Foley says he reached out to Triple H after checking out one of Drew McIntyre's early promos on the independent circuit in 2014.
When Drew McIntyre left WWE in 2014, he took the independent circuit by storm and carved a path back to WWE that is now the blueprint for anyone who gets released and is willing to put in the work to make it back to the sports entertainment juggernaut, if that is their goal.
On the latest episode of Foley is Pod, Mick Foley spoke about betting on yourself, a path that he chose numerous times in his career, and revealed that even though he rarely texts those in power at WWE, he did send Triple H a text message to tell him to keep an eye on Drew after McIntyre asked Foley to check out one of his early promos back on the independent circuit in Insane Championship Wrestling in Scotland.
"Drew will admit that there are times to go out there [on the indies] and be that guy from WWE, but when it really counted, like with Insane Championship Wrestling — people need to know, just from the onset, I rarely text the powers that be and in this case, I texted Hunter after Drew sent me something," Foley recalled. "I wasn't close friends with Drew by any means, but I liked him, and he sent me something. He said, 'Hey, I know you're busy, but I'm working on something different. I did something for her ICW in Glasgow. Can you take a look?' The first thing I did, and he'd only been gone like a month, I texted Triple H and said, 'I know you just released him, but you need to keep your eye on Drew McIntyre. He's like an entirely different person.'
"Sometimes you just need to go there," Foley continued. "You may find out by betting on yourself that you're only as good as WWE told you you were, but man, the two dirtiest words in the English language, 'What if?'"
Drew McIntyre eventually returned to WWE and captured the WWE Championship on two separate occasions including the main event at WrestleMania 36, which due to the global pandemic, saw him defeating Brock Lesnar in front of an empty WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Fans can read Drew's thoughts on being the WWE Champion during such a turbulent time at this link.
These days, McIntyre's path back to the top of WWE is so heralded that he's heard of WWE telling released talents to "go do a Drew." Learn more here.
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