Posted By James Walsh on 10/29/25


While appearing on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast, Drew McIntyre commented a gimmick that was pitched for him when he first debuted with WWE…

“The runway man. I remember he pitched it to me — John Laurinaitis was head of talent relations at the time — at Florida Championship Wrestling, which was there prior to NXT as we know it today, the original developmental, and he built it up. I was listening to him describe the character and thought, ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no.’ And then he went on: the name — The Runway Man — you’re going to have your own model runway, and you’re going to walk down like a model, and—my goodness. I was picturing in my head that basically all my dreams were going to hell.

The next meeting after Johnny was to go to Vince [McMahon] himself and pitch this idea. I kind of sat silent while Johnny pitched it to Vince. I think Vince saw my face the whole time, and he just said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘Whatever you need me to do, I’ll make it work,’ but I had my head down the whole time. I think he read me like, He doesn’t want to do this. And thankfully, they let me play closer to myself.”