Mick Foley put in a good word for Drew McIntyre after his 2014 WWE release

Drew McIntyre went to the indies after his 2014 WWE release, and Mick Foley recalled telling Triple H to take a look at McIntyre during that time. McIntyre had a successful run outside of WWE before returning to the company and rising to the top of the company. Foley recalled on his Foley is Pod show how he noticed McIntyre’s work in Scotland’s ICW and reached out to Triple H about him.

“Drew will admit that there are times to go out there [on the indies] and be that guy from WWE,” Foley recalled (per Fightful). “But when it really counted, like with Insane Championship Wrestling — people need to know, just from the onset, I rarely text the powers that be and in this case, I texted Hunter after Drew sent me something.”

He continued, “I wasn’t close friends with Drew by any means, but I liked him, and he sent me something. He said, ‘Hey, I know you’re busy, but I’m working on something different. I did something for her ICW in Glasgow. Can you take a look?’ The first thing I did, and he’d only been gone like a month, I texted Triple H and said, ‘I know you just released him, but you need to keep your eye on Drew McIntyre. He’s like an entirely different person.’ Sometimes you just need to go there. You may find out by betting on yourself that you’re only as good as WWE told you you were, but man, the two dirtiest words in the English language, ‘What if?’”