Drew McIntyre Is Ready for a Dolph Ziggler Breakup, Main Event Push on WWE Raw

Drew McIntyre is ready.

Those who have closely watched the Scot's journey since his WWE return know what's coming. He isn't WWE's latest attempt to get a guy with size into the main event scene. He isn't the next big threat Roman Reigns can take down. Like most everybody else, he won't be a conventional heel or face, either.

We know this through the little things. McIntyre came up from NXT for his second go-round on the main roster and immediately got into big staredowns with Reigns and Braun Strowman, looking as big as, if not bigger, than both. He looked good in matches with them and Seth Rollins.

Now he's picked up wins over Rollins and Dean Ambrose lately—and nobody beats the latter clean.

But McIntyre did, signaling things are about to come full circle. The guy who started his career as WWE Chairman Vince McMahon's "Chosen One" before a 3MB disaster and ultimately leaving the company in 2014 has come full circle.

WWE's game plan is simple: split up him and Dolph Ziggler and rocket McIntyre into the main event scene.

Rest assured McMahon, Triple H and whoever else has seen this angle budding since well before McIntyre returned to the company in 2017. The pasty-looking goofball who got thrown into 3MB revamped his body, character and in-ring style with various companies, winning and elevating belts with different promotions, before coming back to NXT for a memorable run as champ.

After coming up to the main roster, he's undergone another slight change, going from something of a people's champion to arguably the most intimidating guy on the roster.

And he's perhaps the most believable threat to guys such as Strowman and Brock Lesnar.

Part of it is the look. McIntyre has bulked up, let his hair grow and tanned, creating a chiseled physique that is arguably the ideal look for a pro wrestler. But another facet of it is his in-ring approach—an offensive, by-any-means-necessary style with a smattering of over-the-ropes work onlookers wouldn't expect from a guy who checks in at 6'5" and looks much bigger. The cliched cherry on top is the back-down-from-nobody demeanor, the no-nonsense approach of an alpha who knows he belongs at the top of the food chain. 

That will naturally lead to the split with Ziggler. We can write it as a real thing because we've seen this story plenty of times. Slowly but surely, a showoff such as Ziggler is going to grate on the Scot, who will eventually lay out his tag team partner repeatedly.

Ziggler wasn't just picked for McIntyre because he's a good veteran mentor and needed something to do—he's the company's best seller and will make his tag team partner look like a million bucks before the rocket gets strapped on his back. 

From there, it's all on McIntyre. If WWE wants him to be a villain, great. The company lacks outstanding bad guys, and stars it could try to turn such as Ambrose will just end up getting cheered anyway. Raw, especially, needs a top villain for the good guys like Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose, Strowman, Bobby Lashley, Finn Balor and everybody else to chase.

But McIntyre doesn't have to be so black and white, which makes him perfect main event material. He's the comeback story everybody loves, a story nearly 10 years in the making. He failed, started over at the bottom of the mountain and is nearly back at its peak. There are elements here for fans to cheer, provided it's packaged properly if WWE wants him to go the good-guy route.

Either way works. If Jinder Mahal can go from 3MB jobber to an imposing Superstar with the WWE title after a transformation, so can McIntyre—provided we don't get any Punjabi Prison matches with it.

McIntyre is a more extreme example, and unlike Reigns, the slow burn here will work to keep him in good graces with fans.

Off to the side, McIntyre is slowly catching the fans' attention through his performances and how well he lines up against the biggest names in the company. When his biggest moment arrives, it's going to feel deserved and not spoon fed to the audience. It feels like fans have an active hand in his budding push.

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That push could happen in a variety ways once it gets going. The thumping of Ziggler to get it rolling won't change, but from there, the only way is up. McIntyre ripping the belt off Reigns or otherwise frees up so many refreshing possible angles and feuds instead of this gridlocked chase for The Big Dog.

As noted after he returned, Lesnar's interference at Hell in a Cell was a groan-inducing affair because it meant more of the same with Reigns and The Beast Incarnate, with Strowman added to the mix. And now there's a Triple Threat match for a Universal Championship belt that has felt anything but special since its inception in 2016.

It might have sounded odd even three years to suggest it, but McIntyre might be the savior the WWE landscape needs. Maybe it isn't so strange given his original purpose before stumbling.

The recovery out of the stumble is what makes an otherwise predictable set of storyline events beginning with Ziggler not just endurable but something fans should anticipate.

WWE doesn't necessarily need the next big thing—but it might be getting it anyway.