Major Star Currently On WWE Hiatus Due To Mental Exhaustion

One WWE star has revealed that they are taking time away from the company due to mental exhaustion.

Pat McAfee was back in the ring for the first time in well over a year when he took on Gunther at Backlash. The Ring General had been extremely unhappy at McAfee and Michael Cole for their wild celebrations when Jey Uso won the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 41 as Gunther tapped out.

Gunther put McAfee to sleep, ending their short feud and has since recaptured the World Heavyweight Championship and ended the career of WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg.

Following his Backlash match, Pat McAfee was back to his usual commentary duties but was missing from Raw on the 9th of June, with SmackDown’s Wade Barrett replacing him. McAfee was again absent on the June 16th edition of Raw, but this time it was Corey Graves who replaced McAfee. And Graves has been in the Raw hotseat next to Michael Cole ever since, with serious questions being raised over Pat McAfee’s future in the company.

Pat McAfee Needed WWE Break Due To Mental Exhaustion

Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, the man himself opened up on the real reason he had to take time out from WWE:

I got real tired man. I crashed, I hit a wall. I got to Money in the Bank in LA – I was on the east coast for TST, and then I went down to Parris Island, and then I went to LA for Money in the Bank, and I could just feel it. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, my brain is not operating right now.’

I had talked to others that had maybe experienced mental exhaustion before whenever they have had it, and I’ve talked to them and I’ve been like, ‘I’m staring down what you went through there’. Like, I knew this moment was coming. I knew it was gonna happen at some point, and it happens to people, so I talked to people about it happening and what they went through, and as Money in the Bank was happening, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is it, I’ve finally hit it.’

And I never thought it was gonna happen, but you add in my daughter, the daily show, the travel. And then also trying my best – I know wrestling fans don’t think this, the wrestling community doesn’t think this – but like, I was trying to put everybody over. Like maximum effort, full, every time trying to put people over to people that are watching.

And it’s like, I think that, with the travel, with me not getting back till like 2/3am on Monday nights. And that’s the beginning of our work week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I’ve got 12 hours left of being on air.

It’s an honor to be a part of, but like… I stopped going to Monday night Raw, so that took away two planes and a two-hour sleep night a week away from the schedule. And it was like, stack a couple of weeks, I feel like a human again.

McAfee continued by praising his replacements and noted he was also aware that the football season is on the horizon, and that played a part in him taking time away from WWE now:

And also – Corey Graves, so good. Wade Barrett, so good. For people that watch wrestling, like whatever happened to Seth Rollins, that’s a massive ordeal to WWE because everything that’s going on right now. For me at the commentator position, it’s like, show moves on regardless.

So like, the ability to not feel absolutely f**king terrible for having to take a step back because I’m tired, WWE has, on the other side – because they have such a hard work ethic and travel mindset and they’ve been doing it for so long – they understand that people get like, ‘Hey, yeah, we understand you might need to take a break for a little bit,’ so they’ve been great.

And I will always love the WWE, and I miss it, but I didn’t think I would have made it – I was eyeing football season around the corner, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to survive this thing.’