When Drew McIntyre took the ring in Cardiff, Wales, for a bout with Roman Reigns for a match at WWE's Clash at the Castle, the odds were always stacked against him,

Sure, McIntyre had 60,000 fans cheering him on, hoping for nothing more than to see the hometown kid come away from the first UK Stadium show in 30 years with the belts, but Reigns has had his number for almost a decade now, with a 29-0 record against the “Scottish Warrior” heading into the main event. No, even with The Usos and Paul Heyman absent from the show, McIntyre was going to have to work a near-perfect match to secure the win; a prospect made all the more challenging when Karrion Kross and Scarlett were sitting ringside.

And yet, to McIntyre, none of that really mattered. Sure, he wanted to get the win like almost no one else, as this was the biggest match of his universe after all, but in the end, all the “Chosen One” really wanted was to put on a show for his hometown crowd, and as he sang “Don't Look Back In Anger” next to Tyson Fury as the crowd sang along – which is a thing that actually happened – it's clear that is exactly what he accomplished.

Drew McIntyre appreciates WWE's Clash at the Castle more than he hates his loss.

While the fans at home were watching Reigns' two-year title celebration on SmackDown – which, *spoiler alert* was pre-taped in Detroit alongside the previous week's edition of SmackDown – McIntyre was traversing around the UK drumming up attention for WWE's first stadium show on the island since the early 1990s. He went on a sight-seeing tour filmed by the WWE for B-stock, did media hits, and even made a very interesting hype/workout video in the mountains of Wales that saw the Scottish Superstar talking up his match while doing exercises in the woods (watch it here if you'd like).

So, after all of that work, did the event live up to McIntyre's hopes? Here's what he had to say during the post-show media availability on the matter:

The crowd were unbelievable, I’ve been here all week. I’ve been on the ground, getting around from the mural to the castle, speaking to everybody, all of the events, the community events, and there’s just been so much buzz for this show, and it’s so cool that this is where it all began for me. I started wrestling when I was 15, I learned in England and Portsmith, I was at University and High Scool, my part-time job was wrestler. My summer holidays I spent wrestling for Dixon, Bryan Dixon, full time, I worked for Orig Williams in Wales full-time. Everything has come really full circle and to dream and talk about this show for so long, to see it materialize, the first UK Stadium show in 30 years, and no, for it to be everything I dreamed of and thought it could be, it was so much more

A few years ago, the young Drew would be flipping out right now, swearing, talking about getting screwed but I know Roman, I should have known better, we’ll deal with him when it comes to next week but I’m looking at the positives right now and look at it everybody, we did it.

You know, that takes a good bit of maturity to admit. While it would have been nice to secure the win, and at this point, it's hard to imagine any situation being a more organic way to flip the belt than having 60,000 fans boo Reigns to the point where he had to call for a microphone and ask to be acknowledged, what really matters is that fans got their money's worth and had a day they will never forget.

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Sheamus with a text bubble reading "You just threw it all away over a meme and a t-shirt?" next to Drew McIntyre with the CM Punk logo as the background.

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Cody Rhodes with a text bubble reading "Roman Reigns is elite" next to Roman Reigns with the WWE logo as the background.

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Dave Meltzer with Cody Rhodes on his left, and Vince McMahon on his right with the WrestleMania 39 logo as the background.

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Considering Fury punching out Austin Theory alone probably accomplished that feat on his own, the fantastic main event certainly did all of that and then some.

Speaking of Fury, he agreed with his karaoke partner’s assertion, telling the assembled media that, “Of all the events I’ve been to involving the WWE, they’ve always been very well organized and very well thought out, terrific events, and this was the same again, pretty much the same as the one I did a Wembley back in April. And what I’d like to say to Drew is, he came here, wore his heart on his sleeve, and he put up a great fight. Things happen like this, and although I’ve never had to lose in like a fight or in the ring, life is about ups and downs; one minute you’re up, the next minute you're down, and you just have to keep fighting and keep moving forward and dust yourself off and try, try, try, try, try again. And that’s what I have to say about that.”

So there you go; any long-time McIntyre fan knows this isn't going to slow him down anytime soon, so who knows, maybe the next time WWE returns to Wales – hopefully, sooner than 30 years from now – it will be with McIntyre as their champion, as he clearly proven that he's capable of holding fan attention as a main event superstar.