Drew McIntyre On Why WWE Shouldn't Have Given Him So Many Title Matches in 2021

Drew McIntyre lost three WWE Championship matches to Bobby Lashley earlier last year.

Drew McIntyre admits that he received more WWE Championship opportunities than necessary in 2021.

McIntyre lost his WWE Championship to The Miz at the end of the Elimination Chamber on Feb. 21. Following a successful title defense inside the chamber, McIntyre was attacked by Bobby Lashley, which paved the way for The Miz to cash in his Money in the Bank contract to claim the title.

After losing the WWE Championship, McIntyre entered a long-term program with Lashley. This culminated with three pay-per-view losses to The Almighty, including at WrestleMania 37.

During an interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport (h/t Fightful.com), McIntyre admitted that he felt as though he didn't have to stay in the WWE Championship scene long-erm during his feud with Lashley.

"During the Lashley stuff, perhaps the way we set up the matches, perhaps the narrative of 'Drew keeps getting title matches' that we were pushing for some reason, didn't exactly help during that period," McIntyre explained. "Perhaps I could have gotten out of the title scene a little quicker after I lost the first match and didn't have a couple of follow-up matches and started the rebuild again."

McIntyre gradually moved out of the main event scene after his final loss to Lashley and has been working as a mid-card performer on SmackDown. Right now, McIntyre is in a feud with Happy Corbin and Madcop Moss. The 36-year-old will go up against the latter in a singles match at Day 1.

The former WWE Champion may be back in the main event scene before he knows it, however. McIntyre has been advertised for Universal Championship matches at house shows in January, so it looks like McIntyre will enter a feud with the winner of the Roman Reigns-Brock Lesnar match at Saturday's Day 1 pay-per-view.

2022 Should Be Another Special Year For McIntyre

2020 marked McIntyre's rise to main event status. In 2021, he spent valuable time in the main event scene even though he didn't hold the WWE Championship very long.

If WWE books him properly in 2022, McIntyre will also be a long-term main event performer. He is also overdue for another championship reign of some sort, though it's tough to envision Reigns losing the title any time soon. We'll just have to wait and see how things play out, but WWE would be wise to build largely around McIntyre in 2022.