How Drew McIntyre Felt Winning WWE Title In Front Of Fans

Drew McIntyre dethroned Cody Rhodes on the January 9th, 2026 episode of WWE SmackDown.

He entered the ring in a Three Stages of Hell match and walked out of the ring as the new Undisputed WWE Champion. Even though it wasn’t a clean win, and Jacob Fatu’s interference during the steel cage match made it possible, a win is a win.

Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre will not have a rematch since it was written into the clause ahead of the championship match.

Drew McIntyre opened up about winning the Undisputed WWE Championship

During an interview with TMZ’s Inside The Ring, The Scotsman opened up about winning the championship, especially after his fans had given up all hope of seeing him as the world champion once again. Nevertheless, he believed it would happen, and now that it has, he is ecstatic about it!

Amazing, it felt absolutely unbelievable. I think a lot of people had gotten to the point where they thought Drew McIntyre wasn’t going to be World Champion ever again, and was never gonna hold the title in front of a live crowd with the amount of times I’ve been screwed over the past few years.

But I always believed. I just needed the right opportunity, and Shakespeare couldn’t have written it any better the way it all went down.

I beat Cody Rhodes, the face of the company, in Berlin, which makes me the new face of the company, and my first defence the next night was in Glasgow, Scotland, where it all began, where I first started wrestling at 15 years old, and I was able to walk out there with the WWE Championship and fulfil the promise I made years ago where I told everybody back home in Scotland I’m gonna return one day champion, with the championship belt.

Drew McIntyre has been putting the championship on the line against Cody Rhodes in WWE live shows and retaining it via DQ.

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