Drew McIntyre Beats Keith Lee, Retains WWE Championship on Raw Legends Night

Drew McIntyre defeated Keith Lee on Monday night’s episode of Raw to retain the WWE Championship.

Lee stopped McIntyre dead in his tracks as he was loading up for the Claymore Kick. The challenger looked to transition into a Spirit Bomb, but McIntyre countered and was successful with his second attempt at the Claymore.

2021 has just begun, but this will likely be in the Match of the Year conversation.

McIntyre didn’t have much time to savor his victory before Goldberg arrived to lay down a challenge for Royal Rumble.

Monday’s match came into focus on last week’s edition of Raw when Lee beat Sheamus in a match to determine the No. 1 contender for the WWE title.

Lee and Sheamus have both been portrayed as friends of McIntyre, but they haven’t seen eye to eye primarily because of the fact that Lee kept accusing Sheamus of having ulterior motives and designs on turning on The Scottish Warrior.

McIntyre had them face each other in hopes of squashing the beef, and after beating Sheamus, Lee gave himself an opportunity to potentially become WWE champion for the first time.

Since getting called up to the main roster in August, the former NXT champion and NXT North American champion has made plenty of noise and been involved with many of the top Superstars in the company.

Notably, Lee beat Randy Orton cleanly in his first pay-per-view match and later went on to make the final elimination in Team Raw’s sweep of Team SmackDown in the men’s five-on-five elimination match at Survivor Series.

Lee is one of the most physically gifted and talented Superstars in WWE, and he finally got the chance to prove it against McIntyre with the title on the line.

While Lee and McIntyre did face each other in singles matches a few months ago, they were interrupted by Orton and neither man truly got to establish superiority over the other.

Monday’s match had massive implications with the Royal Rumble and the road to WrestleMania on the horizon, meaning the winner would have a good chance to defend the WWE Championship on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

Lee fell short in his bid to become WWE champion, but he showed that he belongs at the top of the card, and he may well be in line to receive another big opportunity in the near future.

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