When growing up watching professional wrestling, an individual tends to have a favourite Superstar. Whether you're a life-long fan or eventual wrestler yourself, this element of watching the industry remains the same.

It'll be hard to find someone who has a totally unique style in the ring, on the mic or around fans. Most wrestlers go on record to say who their inspiration was growing up and how they want to build their persona around that.

For one member of the WWE roster this is no different. Drew McIntyre, who was released from the company in 2014, said it took until that point in his career to realise he needed to change his outlook on the industry.

Speaking to Bleacher Report's Graham Matthews, the two-time WWE Champion mentioned a certain fan favourite as someone he started to pattern himself after once he returned to the company.

“I always talk about John Cena as someone I patterned myself after, after I was released rather than learning from him in the moment when I was there on the roster,” he said.

“Instead of working to better myself on the roster, it took getting fired and bettering myself personally before I thought of who I could look up to in this business and whose mentality I needed. I thought about John and how relentless he was with everything he did: be it in media, the gym, in the ring and every aspect of his life.

“Cena is such a workaholic and The Miz followed that exact same path. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to be that guy, too.’ Whether it was outside of WWE or inside WWE, whenever I was given any kind of position where I was able to take the reins and get the media opportunities and they wanted to speak to me, I was going to take full advantage of it.

Drew McIntyre

"The second I had that title, I said, ‘Give me it all! I’m that guy now, there’s no excuse, I want every little bit of it.'”

The Scotsman went on to discuss the reason he feels he doesn't receive as much fan backlash for being the 'top face' in WWE, mentioning how his on-screen persona is very familiar to him off TV too.

“I’m not the fresh cool kid on the block,” he said.

Drew McIntyre and John Cena

“Everybody knows who I am and what I’m about. I’m going to continue to be Drew McIntyre. I know exactly who I am as a character and it’s not far off from the real person. I’m going to continue to be me and evolve the character, add more layers wherever I can.

“We’ve seen good guys in the past get massive, massive boos, but people are emotionally invested one way or another. I think it’s pretty crazy that from what I gather, people have been pretty much digging what I’ve been doing for a solid year and a half. That’s not lost on me with how difficult that is to do in this day and age.”

McIntyre has the opportunity to become a three-time WWE Champion at WrestleMania Backlash on Sunday, when he challenges Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match for the belt.

John Cena and Bray Wyatt