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Pat McAfee Comments On WWE Return At Royal Rumble

By John Canton • Published 29th January 2023
pat mcafee wwe royal rumble

The Royal Rumble event saw Pat McAfee make his return to WWE after several months away from the company.

Following several appearances on WWE’s NXT brand that included wrestling in some big-time matches, WWE decided to hire Pat McAfee as a full-time announcer on the Smackdown brand in April 2021.

While the former NFL punter McAfee’s full-time job is hosting a popular sports show on YouTube, he found time to appear on WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown show for over one year and became a beloved announcer among WWE fans due to his boundless enthusiasm as well his perspective as a lifelong wrestling fan.

In September 2022, McAfee left WWE for the next five months because he took a job on the panel of the ESPN College GameDay show that covers college football during the fall season. McAfee has been replaced by Wade Barett, who was on NXT for a few years, since then.

At the start of the Royal Rumble broadcast, Pat McAfee made his WWE return to a big ovation from the crowd. What was funny about it is that WWE’s lead announcer Michael Cole, who is in charge of the commentary team, is a close friend of McAfee and was told by Pat that he wasn’t going to be there. Cole was genuinely surprised that McAfee was there with Pat laughing about how he blatantly lied to Cole to keep the secret.

McAfee remained on commentary for the entire 4+ hour Royal Rumble event with Michael Cole and Corey Graves.

On Twitter, Pat McAfee thanked the fans for giving him a huge ovation while saying he was grateful to be back again.

That was awesome

Massive thank you to the folks of the WWE Universe that were in that AlamoDome.. I’ll remember that “hello” forever 🙏🏻

So grateful to be back tonight..shahtaht @MichaelCole & @WWEGraves GREAT to see the WWE family backstage again 🗣

I’ve missed everyone

It is currently unknown if McAfee will return to regular commentary work in WWE or when he might be back again.