Drew McIntyre was Corey Graves’ guest this week on the latest episode of WWE’s After The Bell podcast. The Scottish Superstar discussed his entire WWE career, including his early days with the company, Vince McMahon personally endorsing him on television as the “Chosen One” and his eventual (unexpected) release.

Graves began the chat by discussing the aforementioned ‘Chosen One’ gimmick that McIntyre was gifted way back in 2009. On the September 25th 2009 episode of SmackDown, McIntyre would be introduced to the audience by Vince McMahon as a “future world Champion.”

This seemingly cemented McIntyre’s status as a top tier talent. Incidentally, McIntyre had no idea what McMahon was going to say in that promo. “Basically, the chosen one started when I was about 23/24” McIntyre began. “When Vince McMahon endorsed me on TV. That’s not something I knew was going to happen, I would just in [the] gorilla [position] and was aware I had a promo. They told me ‘Vince is going to say a quick thing,’ and ‘then you just go out react.’ I didn’t know that was gonna happen. And it was a huge moment for me.”

McIntyre then went into what happened after his run with the Intercontinental Championship and ‘Chosen One’ gimmick didn’t pan out. “Obviously things didn’t work out with the chosen one thing,” McIntyre stated. “Then the 3MB (Three Man Band) thing happened and then obviously I got fired. I got that call. It was a very surprising call as 3MB were on everything. And I thought they were going to tell me I was booked on something else and no. It’s that you’re fired.”

Following McIntyre’s firing in 2014 he returned to the United Kingdom and forged a main event level run as part of Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW). McIntyre’s run at the top of the UK scene helped to create a huge buzz popularity around this time. Drew McIntyre (then known as Galloway) would also win the EVOLVE, WCPW and IMPACT World Championships before returning to WWE and the NXT brand in April 2017.

Vince McMahon’s prophecy of a ‘future World Champion’ may have seemed like an impossibility 6 years ago, when McIntyre was part of the lower card 3MB act. But following his successful return and runs in NXT (as Champion); and RAW he looks set to be a top tier player for WWE heading into the new decade. Corey Graves made a point of saying that McIntyre was ‘his pick’ to win the 2020 Royal Rumble.