Drew McIntyre joins WWE SmackDown roster
Drew McIntyre is officially a member of the WWE SmackDown roster.
Ahead of tonight’s show, WWE posted a video with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis announcing that McIntyre as the newest signing to his brand. There will be a triple threat Elimination Chamber qualifying match tonight with McIntyre vs. LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso.
John Cena and CM Punk have already secured their places in the men’s Elimination Chamber match, which will feature six participants in total. The PLE is taking place in Toronto on Saturday, March 1.
There was a situation at the Royal Rumble last weekend where McIntyre was legitimately unhappy backstage after the timing of a spot he was involved in with Damian Priest got messed up by Knight doing moves that weren’t planned and got in the way of what McIntyre and Priest were doing.
In the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that was posted this morning, Dave Meltzer confirmed that McIntyre was joining SmackDown and would be working a program with Priest. Meltzer wrote that WWE also has plans for Cody Rhodes vs. McIntyre at some point:
McIntyre is moving to Smackdown. He’ll be working with Priest at first but the idea of him moving to Smackdown dates back long before there were any ideas for him an Priest. He’d been pushing Reigns in his promos for months for that reason. There is also a plan right now to get to Rhodes vs. McIntyre, which was scheduled for 2023 before Rhodes ended up not winning the title that year.
Here is the updated card for tonight’s SmackDown:
- Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Drew McIntyre vs. LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso
- Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Bianca Belair vs. Piper Niven
- Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Alexa Bliss vs. Candice LeRae
- Royal Rumble winners Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair will appear