Angle Hypes Up McIntyre, Cody Praises Cesaro and Latest Rumors on Austin Theory

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Angle Praises McIntyre After WWE Title Win

Drew McIntyre beat Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36, and WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle is among those who are excited about it.

In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Angle expressed excitement over the fact that a new star has been born in WWE: "We finally have somebody new in the main event, and that's Drew McIntyre. He is the breath of fresh air for WWE. Now you don't need to continuously keep going back to Roman [Reigns], [John] Cena and Brock. Drew is the new guy, and he needs to excel this year."

It has been a long road to the top for McIntyre, as his promising WWE career fizzled at first and led to his release in 2014. He returned in 2017, however, and has been a different performer ever since.

Angle worked with McIntyre in Impact Wrestling following McIntyre's WWE release and said he knew then that the Scottish Superstar could be a top guy:

"I know Drew didn't do as well as he would have liked the first time he was in WWE, but I knew he was special when I saw him in TNA. He looked great then, but he still didn't look the way he looks now—he worked his ass off, built his body up, and he looks fantastic. I knew if WWE got a hold of him, his career would take off."

After the company teased a big push for McIntyre over the past couple of years, he finally got the rub in the 2020 Royal Rumble match when he eliminated Lesnar and went on to win the match.

McIntyre then headlined Night 2 of WrestleMania 36 against Lesnar, and after kicking out of the F5 multiple times, he hit The Beast with several Claymore Kicks and pinned him for the win.

Since that win, McIntyre has beaten Big Show and Andrade, and he is seemingly about to enter into a feud with Seth Rollins. All signs point toward WWE giving McIntyre a long and sustained push now that he has finally reached the top.

Cody Talks Up Cesaro

AEW Executive Vice President Cody spoke highly of WWE Superstar Cesaro in response to a tweet Monday night.

After someone tweeted Cody a photo of a match pitting him and his brother, Goldust, against Cesaro and Jack Swagger from a WWE live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 2013, he wrote the following about Cesaro: "Good match. Claudio is the most underrated guy on the planet (and he's still highly rated!). Dude can do anything. Like a PWG Nikita Koloff."

Cody faced many different opponents during his nine years on WWE's main roster, but it is clear that he particularly holds Cesaro in high regard.

Cesaro made his WWE main roster debut in 2012 after performing as Claudio Castagnoli in Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and several other companies.

While Cesaro has never quite reached main event status in WWE, he is a one-time United States champion, six-time Tag Team champion and a key utility player who can do essentially anything WWE asks of him.

Currently, Cesaro is part of the Artist Collective, which is a stable led by intercontinental champion Sami Zayn. Cesaro takes a back seat to Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura at times but has been a constant presence on SmackDown in recent months.

Cesaro is likely a star who AEW would love to get its hands on eventually, but there has been no evidence that the Swiss Superman intends to leave WWE any time soon.

Heyman Reportedly Made Decision to Call Up Theory

Austin Theory reportedly has an important person in his corner after getting called up to Raw from NXT prior to WrestleMania.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Marc Middleton), Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman was behind the decision to call Theory up. While the idea didn't come from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, he still signs off on all decisions.

When Andrade was ruled unable to compete at WrestleMania, a replacement was needed to team with Angel Garza against Raw tag team champions The Street Profits. Zelina Vega then revealed Theory as the newest member of her stable.

It was unclear if that meant the 22-year-old Theory was up for good, but that appears to be the case since he has been on both episodes of Raw since WrestleMania.

Also, Theory is scheduled to face Aleister Black next week in a men's Money in the Bank ladder match qualifying bout.

Monday's Raw focused largely on Vega's stable, as Theory, Garza and Andrade ran roughshod until McIntyre finally managed to beat Andrade in the main event.

Theory is oozing with potential and seemingly has all the tools needed to be a top star in WWE, and it appears as though he will be given an opportunity to learn on the fly on the main roster rather than in NXT.

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