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Pat McAfee Explains How It’s Difficult For Him To Be Involved With WWE

By Craig Ballantyne • Published 24th August 2023
Pat McAfee

Pat McAfee has explained why it’s difficult for him to return to WWE, but promised he will figure out a way to do it.

After a stint in NXT where McAfee feuded with Adam Cole, McAfee joined Michael Cole at the SmackDown announce desk in April 2021. The pairing was hugely popular with fans and lasted until September 2022.

McAfee then stepped back from commentary duties to become a regular on ESPN’s College GameDay. He followed this up by moving The Pat McAfee show to the sports network as part of a mammoth 5-year deal worth $85 million.

Since then, McAfee has made sporadic appearances in the company, most notably defeating The Miz in an impromptu match at WrestleMania 39.

Pat McAfee explains why he hasn’t been able to return to WWE

Duirng a Q&A on Instagram Live, McAfee was asked if he misses WWE. The star admitted he does, “every day.”

“This is going to sound like pandering or a cheap pop, but it’s not. Every day, bro, literally. You know, when I was in the NFL, I was envious of the people who could go do indy wrestling.

“I wasn’t allowed, obviously under my NFL contract, and also I couldn’t jeopardise what was paying for me and my family and my friends to have a much better life than what we grew up in.”

When the opportunity came along, McAfee seized on it, now he looks back on that time as an “honour and a dream.”

“Then I get an opportunity to wrestle and do the WWE life. It was an honour and a dream, and I had the time of my f*****g life in there.

“Loved it, every single moment, but now my business has gotten to a point, and we’re very lucky for this and fortunate for this, we’ve worked our a** off, but you know I’m incredibly busy.”

Despite this, McAfee finished his answer by promising that he will figure out a way to return.

“We’ve got fifteen employees over here that are having babies and building houses so it’s a tough thing to deal with mentally, because emotionally I want to be there but I just can’t timing wise. But we will figure it out.”

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