Drew McIntyre has revealed that he was concerned about rioting in the streets of Wales after losing to Roman Reigns at Clash at the Castle.
WWE invaded Wales at the beginning of September as they brought Clash at the Castle to the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. The show marked the first time WWE had returned to a UK stadium in over thirty years with the previous time being for SummerSlam 1992 in Wembley Stadium, London, England.
Speaking to My San Antonio as part of the build-up to the 2023 Royal Rumble that will take place in San Antonio, Texas, McIntyre reflected on his experience and says he was concerned at the level of unhappiness from the crowd after he lost to Roman Reigns:
“It took my dad 10 hours to drive there for some reason, but it’s a little over six hours away. But I am from the U.K. It is as close to home turf as you are going to get, and the buzz was incredible. It was the first U.K. stadium show in 30 years. The main event then was British Bulldog vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart. But now I was in the main event, we took over the stadium and my face was plastered everywhere in Cardiff. It was such a surreal feeling because I grew up wrestling in those areas when I was at university.”
“Now, to be back and to hear the crowd, which I thought would be like 70-30 like it was for Bulldog vs. Hart and he was English, and it was in England. I am not technically from Wales, and I am not even English. But they were 100 percent for me and against Roman and the atmosphere was great.”
“I even asked Roman afterwards – because he has been a part of these matches with big crowds – have you heard anything like that, and he said ‘No.’ You’d be hard pressed to find a crowd that was that loud consistently throughout, especially our match. It was a World Cup soccer match the way they were shouting – the way they were singing their songs and chanting ‘F-U Roman’ the entire time.”
“They were not happy with that finish. I was generally concerned about rioting. That is the reason we did what we did after the match. But it was an amazing part of wrestling history. And I got to talk with Bret Hart afterward, and that meant a lot since he was my favorite wrestler and he main evented there.”
During the interview Drew McIntyre also discussed the recent blunder involving himself, Karrion Kross, Scarlett, and an errant fireball on SmackDown.