It has been quite the road back to the WWE for former Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre.

He was initially released from his WWE deal back in 2014 after a failed stint with the Three Man Band (3MB) faction. After working the independent circuit for several years, McIntyre re-signed with WWE in April of 2017 and joined the NXT brand.

While on NXT McIntyre re-established himself as a legitimate singles competitor and wound up winning the NXT Championship.

After losing the NXT Title to Andrade "Cien" Almas at an NXT TakeOver event, McIntyre was shelved for several months due to an injury he sustained during their match.

The Return

He recently made his return to action by being called up to the main roster by way of the Superstar Shakeup, appearing on Monday Night RAW alongside Dolph Ziggler.

Now, McIntyre and Ziggler coexist on RAW as they attempt to make a bigger name for themselves. Recent reports have suggested that Vince McMahon has taken a liking to McIntyre, which could mean big things to come for the Scotsman in the future.

McIntyre recently did an interview with Planeta Wrestling during WWE's recent European Tour. The former Intercontinental Champ was asked about his long road in the WWE.

A New Era

Firstly, McIntyre discussed how the culture in the WWE locker room has changed since he left. Bear in mind he has been working for WWE during two very different eras.

He admitted that while people are a lot less tense backstage, they're also a lot less competitive with one another as well (quotes via Sportskeeda):

"As I was hurt, I had time to sit back and watch the show, and was able to watch more wrestling than I have in a long time because I have been so busy in general.

"I was really sitting back and watching WWE Raw and studying it, and I noticed basically that it wasn't necessarily all killer.

"They have some great athletes, obviously, but they don't necessarily... they don't look like they should be there.

"I went backstage in one of their shows, and I said this in another interview on WWE.com, and I noticed that the atmosphere was a bit different than when I was first here.

"There wasn't any tension in the air. There was a lack of that competitive spirit backstage with each other."

McIntyre also revealed the one thing the NXT roster has that WWE's main roster doesn't:

"I know down in NXT there is about 100 people with that fire in their eyes who are willing to take that spot from them in that second, so I am here to start eradicating the people that don't want to be here, and to set an example for everybody and bring back the way things used to be."

What are your thoughts on McIntyre's comments regarding WWE's NXT roster and their main roster? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

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