5 fired WWE stars who returned to great success

Two of these three men would go on to become WWE Champion. I know, right??

#3 Drew McIntyre finally fulfills his destiny as WWE's "chosen one."

While we're talking about former members of 3MB, let's turn our attention to former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. While "The Scottish Warrior/Psychopath/er... Guy" has, without a doubt, been the most decorated member of that group since it split up in 2014, it wasn't exactly an easy road to get there.

Drew - after making a name for himself on the indie scene in the United Kingdom - would make his for-real-this-time debut on the main WWE roster in 2009 (after making a few appearances in 2007), and would even be introduced to the WWE Universe by Vince McMahon himself as a "future world champion," which I'm sure put absolutely no pressure on the poor guy.

Despite winning the Intercontinental Championship (and having a banger of a theme song)...

... Drew could never get much momentum going, and soon found himself floundering in the midcard and then, worse yet, 3MB. Eventually, in 2014, WWE released McIntyre from his contract and sent him on his merry way.

"[When] I got released," Drew told me during a 2019 interview in Las Vegas, "I sat down and thought to myself, 'OK, now's your chance. I'm capable of more than [I've] been giving...' I [hadn't] been giving my all, I can admit that."

Drew returned to his given name, Drew Galloway, and started back at the beginning - the British indie scene.

With a new, bulkier look and attitude, McIntyre once again caught the eye of WWE - after winning a couple of world titles in IMPACT Wrestling - and returned to the company as part of NXT. You're probably familiar with what happened after that... NXT Championship, Royal Rumble, beating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, two WWE titles reigning, and all that jazz.

At only 35 years old, Drew still has plenty of years left to make an even bigger mark on both WWE and the wrestling business as a whole. To think it would take him getting fired to get him to the point where he was able to do that.

Edited by Greg Bush