Drew McIntyre quitting WWE right after Clash at the Castle came as a surprise to many, as well as his return to beat up CM Punk at SmackDown. However, Hall of Famer Teddy Long believes there was an alternate way of booking the quitting angle.
The Scottish Warrior suffered a massive defeat at Clash at the Castle, with the World Heavyweight title on the line. With Drew on the cusp of victory, CM Punk showed up to interfere in the final moments disguised as a referee. This led to Damian Priest retaining the title. In the following episode, Drew was seen quitting the show and walking out after the shocking announcement.
Speaking on Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine hosted by Mac Davis, Teddy Long stated:
"The other option is you know, he could have just left and not said anything. Okay? He could have just walked out of that ring... Once he got backstage they got a couple of guys back their with microphones trying to (talk to Drew), 'Drew hold on a minute, what's...' you know, he ain't talking to nobody. They follow him all the way out of the door, he gets out of the door, grabs his bag and whatever, gets in the car or something and he's gone." [7:34 onwards]
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Bill Apter did not agree with the WWE Hall of Famer
While Teddy Long believes Drew McIntyre's quitting segment could have been done better, Bill Apter is quite appreciative of how things happened.
On the same episode of The Wrestling Time Machine, the veteran journalist stated that the booking decisions made the WWE segment more impactful:
"People said oh my god, he quit. I think they did a great job on that because people were talking about it all week and nobody, nobody thought that he would show up and attack CM Punk on SmackDown because he had quit the company. I thought he was gonna show up on TNA. I was actually hoping that, that he quit, make it look real, show up on TNA for a week and then come back and do the attack by surprise. To me, had he just walked out, it wouldn't have meant as much to everybody as you know, the kids at the bus stop the next day going, 'Drew McIntyre quit last night.'" [8:05 onwards]
As of now, it remains to be seen how the storyline progresses in WWE.
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