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22nd April 2021
10:57am BST
Drew McIntyre falls from the steel cage during his Hell In A Cell match with Randy Orton. (Credit: WWE)[/caption]
Such attributes have caught the eye of A-list film stars.
"I can say from experience now that Hollywood actors have come into our shows, been given a script before and have then come up to me and said 'Is this normal? We get a script so much further in advance.'
"I was like 'yeah, that's normal. You just have to go out there and feel it.'"
Weirdly, professional actors haven't always handled that experience well, according to McIntyre.
"They might say 'I don't know what to do, I'm gonna panic'. And sure enough, they go out there and they panic when they hear the crowd.
"It's cool to say 'this guy has won a bunch of acting awards and freaks out when he goes out there'. There really is an art to this."
Professional wrestling is often labelled 'fake' and 'scripted' by critics. Social media has only exacerbated the problem.
https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/1286237869862981633?s=20
When asked what he makes of such remarks, McIntyre said: "I just hope I get the chance [to read troll comments].
"So much goes into making what we do as believable as possible.
"But about it being 'fake'... Number one, if you find out how to defy gravity, tell this guy first. That'd be nice.
"Two... there's an art that goes into making this believable. Live action stunts, listening to the crowd, improvising and trying to keep the crowd engaged.
"If you don't know what you're doing in the ring it looks crap physically and two, the fans are just gonna be sitting on their hands. That's the worst feeling in the world."
Fellow WWE superstar Randy Orton recently took Soulja Boy to task on Twitter after the rapper branded wrestling 'fake'.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CML0sO-B682/
Social media is a powerful tool for communicating with a rapidly-expanding audience, but it has arguably made being a WWE superstar harder - a fact McIntyre agreed with, "100 percent".
Not only is there now an army of trolls to deal with, but social media makes it difficult to maintain the mystique that professional wrestling gimmicks need in order to grow.
McIntyre said: "I remember growing up watching Kane, you'd never see him without his mask on, only in the magazines or with a towel on his head in airports. This was before camera phones or when people would see him in the gym either."
He is considerate about what he posts on social media platforms, so as to not let the mask slip too far. Some wrestlers are less careful, however.
Sighing, McIntyre said: "A lot of superstars have gone with the whole, 'we're actors, so here's my real name on my social media. I play this character on TV...'
"Our industry is different. We're 52 weeks a year, we're non-stop, fans want to be emotionally invested in superstars. Even if they know how it 'works', don't throw it in their face."
A Chosen Destiny by Drew McIntyre is published by Ebury on 22nd April 2021.
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