Drew McIntyre vs. Tyson Fury; WWE Rumors on Johnny Gargano, Butch and T-Bar

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Drew McIntyre Wants Tyson Fury

Even though the end of Clash at the Castle featured a friendly moment between Drew McIntyre and Tyson Fury, the Scottish Warrior hopes to have a feud with the boxing superstar.

In an interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport (h/t Eric Mutter of WrestlingInc), McIntyre spoke about a discussion he had with Fury regarding a potential bout between the two.

“We had a chat earlier today and had a bit of laugh about the banter,” McIntyre said. “But I still said to him, ‘If the time is right, you never know. We can get in that ring.’ It doesn’t matter if we’re having a laugh right now. When it comes time for a big fight that’s going to get eyeballs, I want that big fight.”

Fury was sitting ringside for Saturday’s show from Cardiff, Wales. He got involved in the main event between McIntyre and Roman Reigns when he knocked out Austin Theory, who attempted to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase.

After Reigns defeated McIntyre, the Gypsy King got into the ring and had a brief staredown with the undisputed WWE universal champion. He also shared a moment with McIntyre, with the two stars singing as the show went off the air.

Fury has worked with WWE in the past, including having a match with Braun Strowman at Crown Jewel in October 2019. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him back in a wrestling ring if he wants to do it.

AEW Had Mild Interest in Johnny Gargano

Before returning to WWE last month, Johnny Gargano seemed like an attractive free-agent option for All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling to pursue because of his in-ring ability and connection with wrestling crowds.

Per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select (h/t Marco Rovere of WrestlingInc), it turns out WWE was the only promotion that had heavy interest in signing Johnny Wrestling when his previous contract ran out in December.

Sapp noted AEW did express “mild interest” in Gargano, but people in the company didn’t think he would consider signing. Impact never seriously considered adding him.

While it would have been fun to see what Gargano could do against several top stars in AEW like Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega, it’s hard to fault him for going back to a situation he knows well.

Even though this is Gargano’s first stint on the main roster, Triple H was running NXT when he was arguably the biggest star on the men’s roster for the promotion. The 35-year-old should be a featured player on Raw now that he’s returned after a nine-month hiatus after his wife, Candice LeRae, gave birth to their first child.

Butch and T-Bar Not Getting Original Names Back

One of the strange final acts of Vince McMahon’s tenure running WWE was to take away the first names of multiple superstars, including Austin Theory and Matt Riddle.

Since Triple H has taken over as chief creative officer, Theory and Riddle have gotten their first names back. It doesn’t appear that will be the case for everyone who either had a name dropped or received a random name change.

Per Sapp (h/t Eric Mutter of WrestlingInc), there are currently no plans to give Butch and T-Bar their previous monikers back.

Butch is currently in the Brawling Brutes stable with Sheamus and Ridge Holland. He was given the name after being called up to the main roster after wrestling in NXT as Pete Dunne.

T-Bar has been on the main roster since 2020, but his first three years in WWE were spent on the NXT brand, where he competed as Dominik Dijakovic.

It always seemed strange to have your fans get familiar with superstars on one of your brands, then change their identity when they got called up. But a lot of things McMahon did, especially near the end of his run, rarely made sense if you thought about them for two seconds.

Since Butch and T-Bar are well established on the main roster, there’s no sense in trying to change their names. Let them keep carving out their niche with these current gimmicks before doing anything drastic.

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