Backstage Update On WWE's Booking Plans For Drew McIntyre (WWE News)
It looks like Drew McIntyre is dropping that WWE Title AND taking a sabbatical.
Bodyslam.net's Patreon claims that reigning WWE Champion Drew McIntyre didn't find out that plans for WrestleMania 42 had changed until last week. However, the website is also reporting that Triple H and his creative team had been formulating Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton for Las Vegas since last month.
That's a painful thought for McIntyre.
As aforementioned in other write ups about this, Drew dropping the WWE Title to Cody on this week's episode of SmackDown (assuming it happens, but it looks likely) isn't a reflection on his quality of work. The company are impressed by McIntyre's workload, but they just badly want to pull the trigger on Rhodes vs. Orton ASAP.
It's believed that the Scot will now tangle with Jacob Fatu at 'Mania instead. That bumps him from a prime title match in the main event slot to the undercard, which is obviously disappointing for Drew. However, as with everything else in his career, he'll make the best of it.
Then, once WWE wraps up business in Vegas, it looks like McIntyre will take some time off TV to film the latest Highlander movie. That's been on the cards for a while now, so he was always scheduled to take a sabbatical at some point - fans just thought the current WWE Champ would be involved in the title scene for a while longer.
Some sort of multi-man title defence seemed imminent at WrestleMania, but Cody vs. Randy is the direction Hunter and pals want to go in now. Build for that started in the background during Rhodes' last title reign, but nothing came of it back then.