More Details On Drew McIntyre's WWE Contract Status

On Friday night, PWI Elite reported that Drew McIntyre's WWE contract "is in its final year," and that the two sides are currently not close in terms of negotiations. Now, Fightful Select has more details on the situation, which may not be as dire as initially feared.

According to Fightful, McIntyre's contract will be up "within the next nine months," a number that effectively takes it to the end of 2023 and possibly into 2024. Fightful also reports that McIntyre is waiting until the end of the deal is more imminent before he signs anything new, "as there [are] a number of factors to consider" and that this practice of talent waiting to enter talks until contracts get close to expiration was common practice in WWE "towards the end of the Vince McMahon era," though it's unknown whether the same is true under Paul Levesque. McIntyre seems to be one of several WWE stars whose contracts expire within the next two years, as WWE responded to the birth of rival promotion AEW in 2019 by signing several wrestlers to five-year deals (Fightful notes that many of these stars were released and then re-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic). WWE is eager to keep him in the fold and is looking forward to negotiating with him later this year.

McIntyre returned to WWE in 2017 after spending three years on the independent scene. He won the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 36, just after the pandemic began, and competed for that title again at WrestleMania 37 in a losing effort against Bobby Lashley. This year, he's set to compete for the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Sheamus and GUNTHER on Night 2 of WrestleMania.