Drew McIntyre Had Unique Experience With WWE Championship
Drew McIntyre has given some insight into a viral moment involving the WWE Championship.
The “Scottish Warrior” Drew McIntyre became the Undisputed WWE Champion on the January 9th edition of SmackDown when he defeated Cody Rhodes in a 3 Stages of Hell Match.
While the win was controversial, thanks to an unexpected assist by Jacob Fatu, all that matters to McIntyre is that he became a WWE World Champion for the fourth time.
After winning the WWE Title on SmackDown in Berlin, McIntyre went on social media and posted a photo of himself sleeping in a bed with the WWE Championship in his arms. McIntyre captioned the photo by writing: “I prayed for this, and it happened.”
I prayed for this and it happened pic.twitter.com/mbHDNqv2Sv
— Drew (@DMcIntyreWWE) January 10, 2026
Drew McIntyre’s WWE Title Pose Was Inspired By Lionel Messi
While speaking to TMZ’s Inside The Ring, the Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre admitted that the photo of himself in bed with the WWE Title was actually inspired by football/soccer legend Lionel Messi. After Argentina won the World Cup in 2022, Messi shared a photo on Instagram as he lay in bed with the World Cup trophy beside him. The photo of Messi had over 30 million likes on Instagram and broke social media engagement records.
McIntyre admitted that his buddy gave him the idea to do something similar with the WWE Title.
“My buddy actually had the idea come from Messi, the biggest Instagram post of all time, and that’s where the idea came from and a few athletes have replicated it since, and I wanted to be one of the athletes that did it. He suggested it to me, I said that’s absolutely perfect, it suits me, suits the character perfect.
“I gave it a good old wash first because I don’t want Cody’s dirty little germs on me to give me anything, but then I slept with it, then I woke up with it, because it’s been a very long tour, I’ve been on the road for more weeks than I can count at this point, I got home for 12 hours, but it’s been absolutely worth it.”
As he continued, McIntyre admitted that he did actually sleep with the WWE Title on the first night.
“I actually woke up and thought it was a dream for a second, I looked beside me, and I legitimately slept with it, so that wasn’t a bit, I really did sleep with the title.”
The viral photo of Messi with the World Cup trophy is below.
