WWE Legend Felt Pat McAfee Delivered “Top 20 Promo Of All Time” On Raw
Pat McAfee issuing a challenge to Gunther on WWE Monday Night Raw led one wrestling legend to claim it was an all-time great promo.
There was a shocking attack on Raw After WrestleMania when Michael Cole and Pat McAfee were attacked by the former WWE World Champion, Gunther. After Gunther went after Cole at first, McAfee punched the powerful Austrian. When McAfee walked away, Gunther applied a sleeper to McAfee, and Gunther held onto it for about two minutes.
On the final April episode of Raw in Kansas City, Pat McAfee cut a passionate promo while standing on the commentary table. During his promo, he called out Gunther for what he had done to McAfee, which led to McAfee challenging Gunther to a match. Nick Aldis, who is usually the SmackDown General Manager, was handling Raw General Manager duties for the night and booked the McAfee match against Gunther for Backlash on May 10th.
Tommy Dreamer has been involved in the pro wrestling business for over 30 years. In addition to wrestling for many years on TV in ECW, WWE, and TNA, he has also worked behind the scenes in all three companies. Dreamer currently works for TNA as one of the key contributors in the company behind the scenes.
While talking about Raw on Busted Open After Dark, Dreamer praised McAfee for his promo because of how real it felt.
“This promo was great. This promo was excellent, putting this up in top 20 promos of all time.
Here’s why, because it was real. He gave his own story, which we could all talk about ourself. But my biggest key when I say is the emphasis of the curse word.”
Pat McAfee Is Living The American Dream
During the promo, McAfee used swear words a few times. He said he was a “loyal motherf**ker” to his friends like Michael Cole. McAfee also referred to Gunther as an “Austrian A**hole.” McAfee also said “F**k that” to people trying to tell him that he should back down against a bully like Gunther.
As Dreamer continued to praise McAfee’s promo, he spoke about how the use of swear words helped the promo because of when they were used.
“He’s literally living the American dream and going after a guy who could kick his ass. It was such a great, heartfelt promo. At first… I was like, ‘Man, he’s narcissistic in his own way of telling a story.’ But if you’re thinking about 2025 Hey, we’re liking the bad boys.
And then from there, what most people need is humility. And [he] took it way down to build to that moment, to the curse. I have heard curse laden promos [with] no effect when he hit that one line, which is actually then he drops the F bomb. You have your entire place shocked and reacting to it. The key word was the emphasis and the build to the word.”
Dreamer claimed that McAfee delivered a “masterful promo.”
“It was a masterful promo for… a guy who gets paid to talk and gets paid a lot of money to talk. That promo was money. Got you behind it, and if anybody could defeat Gunther in that moment with that promo? It was Pat McAfee. The ultimate good guy versus the ultimate bad guy, which is… wrestling 101.”
Although he has been a full-time announcer for WWE over the past few years, McAfee has also wrestled at significant events, including WrestleMania and SummerSlam. He also competed in a WarGames match in NXT, so he’s capable when it comes to performing in the ring.