Drew McIntyre’s Former Rival Opens Up On Real-Life Beef With Madonna

Drew McIntyre is currently locked in a heated rivalry with Cody Rhodes.

But before that, he had a memorable and long-standing rivalry with Grado. Their feud was intense and full of personal moments, stretching back to their time on the UK wrestling scene. Their rivalry was fueled by both in-ring competition and backstage tension, making their encounters highly anticipated by fans who enjoyed the drama and storytelling woven into their bouts.

Drew McIntyre’s former rival, Grado, Had A Beef with Madonna Over Theme Music

Grado’s real-life beef with pop icon Madonna might come as a surprise to many, but it revolves around a rather unusual issue: theme music. The Scottish wrestler, known for his charismatic entrance music that gets the crowd hyped, wanted to use Madonna’s iconic song “Like a Prayer” as his entrance music when wrestling in the US.

But when Impact Wrestling tried to get permission for Grado to use the song, Madonna’s team denied the request. Grado wasn’t happy about it and launched a social media campaign called #SayYesMadonna, hoping to convince her to approve the song. The hashtag even trended worldwide, and BBC’s Jonathan Ross got involved, with fans asking him to question Madonna about the refusal. Ross said he’d ask if he had the time, but the opportunity never came.

I’ve been in a bit of a bother in the past with Madonna; I’ll never forget it.

Years and years ago, when I first started using Like A Prayer, another company that I wrestled for tried to get the song to be played for one another, it was actually for Impact, and we got an email back from a record company. I’ll never forget it, I’m sure it was Universal Records, and it said the following request to use Like A Prayer has been denied by Madonna, right, so it’s Madonna herself.”

Now I ended up doing a Say Yes Madonna campaign, it ended up trending worldwide. Loose women were wanting to talk to me; I had Jonathan Ross; he was getting absolutely pelted on Twitter because he was supposed to be interviewing Madonna that weekend on his show. Jonathan Ross decided to DM me because a lot of the Grado fans that were supporting me back then were going, You need to ask Madonna, why is Grado not getting to use Like A Prayer?

And he said, ‘Look, I’ll tell you right now, if there’s any time, I will ask Madonna about you using her music.’ He says, ‘But we’re going to have very little time there,’” Grado said in an exclusive interview with ITRWrestling.

Things took a funny turn when Grado jokingly mocked Madonna’s fall at the Brit Awards that same week by tweeting a picture of himself wrapped in a black sheet, like Madonna was during her fall.

That tweet backfired as Ross messaged Grado saying he “messed up” and now had no chance to bring up Grado’s music request with Madonna. Despite all this, Grado remains optimistic. He said that if he can’t use “Like a Prayer” at his next appearance, he’s confident the fans will sing it for him live.

Now that same week, it’s so weird, right, the Brit Awards happened. I don’t know if you remember this, but Madonna kicked off her song. She was at the top of her stage, she had a big black cloak, and she was about to sing one of her songs, but she ended up falling on her a**e.

Did you see that? Yeah, yes. Right, so I decided, because at the time, you know, that she, she didn’t let me use her song, well I thought I’d, I’d be funny by tweeting a picture of me with like a black sheet, because she was held under a black sheet, it was all these people on the sheet. So I decided to put up a tweet, sorry officer, I’ve been at home all night.

That ended up making the press, obviously, because I started to take the peel away a bit, because Madonna fell, and then I got a message from Jonathan Ross saying, ‘You’ve completely messed it up now, there’s no chance I’m bringing up you using Like A Prayer.’”

So I’ve had this sort of problem with the song for years and years and years, but you know what, if it comes to the bit, and Like A Prayer isn’t used, then I’m sure the fans in attendance have got great singing voices, they can help me out, what do you think?”