It took a while, but it finally happened. Drew McIntyre left Berlin, Germany with some extra weight in his hand luggage as he finally defeated Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship last night on Smackdown.

The two battled it out in a Three Stages of Hell match, where the first round was a regular match won by McIntyre. The second round was a falls count anywhere match, won by Rhodes. The third was a steel cage match, won by McIntyre with some extra help from the returning Jacob Fatu.

Fatu’s intention was not to help McIntyre win, and actually prevented him from exiting the cage at first. But after Rhodes attacked Fatu, they left McIntyre unattended, and he simply crawled out of the cage for the shock victory.

The match aired without commercials.

“No longer bored at work,” McIntyre posted on X after the match, playing off previous posts where he posted photos during matches saying, “Bored at work.”

McIntyre last held a title at WrestleMania 40, winning the WWE World Heavyweight title from Seth Rollins, but lost it just five minutes later to Damian Priest when he cashed in his MITB briefcase. McIntyre was haunted by CM Punk, who was on commentary, and played a role in clocking McIntyre before Priest ran out.

Apart from this very short run, McIntyre had not held a title in front of fans as his previous runs were during COVID when no one was allowed in the arena.