“Imagine if Roman says, ‘I want to choose Drew. Drew holds the championship that I held for 1400 days and why I’m the third greatest on the list,’ blah, blah, blah. ‘I have every reason in the world to choose Drew McIntyre, but I won’t because I hate you,'” Ray suggested. “So now you put over Drew and you talk about how the hatred for Punk is so great that you don’t want your old championship back.”

In the wake of Reigns choosing Punk, signs are pointing to McIntyre potentially defending his Undisputed WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania, especially given that “The Scottish Warrior” not only dethroned “The American Nightmare,” but also eliminated him from the 2026 Men’s Royal Rumble. Despite this, Ray still can’t seem to overlook the statements made by Punk and Reigns.

“I can’t tell you why they went out of their way, and for lack of a better word, do you think they buried Drew McIntyre last night? I used the word ‘buried’ [but that sounds too strong]. I’m hoping Drew has some kind of a comeback to this,” Ray said. “I’m hoping Drew can stick it to Punk and to Roman, because after last night’s promo, I know two things for sure: I really want to see Roman versus Punk, and I really could care less about Drew McIntyre’s WrestleMania match.”

The formal process to determine McIntyre’s WrestleMania opponent may begin on tonight’s edition of “WWE SmackDown” with the qualifying matches for the Men’s Elimination Chamber. So far, Randy Orton, Solo Sikoa, and Aleister Black have been announced as qualifier participants, though WWE has yet to confirm if the winner of the Men’s Elimination Chamber will indeed go on to challenge McIntyre.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.