Pat McAfee will compete at WrestleMania 38, taking on Austin Theory after being awarded a match by Vince McMahon on a recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show. This will mark the former NFL punter’s third WWE match and fourth overall in his career, previously taking on Adam Cole and competing in a WarGames match back in 2020. McAfee was a guest on Busted Open Radio this week and hyped up the match while discussing his creative freedom within the company.
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“Austin Theory, he’s just going to get his a— beat,” McAfee said (h/t Fightful). “There hasn’t been anything yet in this entire WWE existence that I’ve said, ‘Hey, we should try this’ that has been completely ruled out. There has been a couple things that I have brought to the forefront and said, ‘This would be cool,’ and I’ve been told, ‘that might be happening…we have to dance around.’ Cool, I completely understand. I feel like the creative and conversation get pooped on a lot outside of WWE. Going in, I assumed that everything was going to be impossible. I’m a super creative person, I enjoy everything my brain thinks and the way I operate. I’m very lucky to be where I’m at in life financially and professionally. I thought I was going in there and it was going to be tooth and nail trying to get everything done. I haven’t experienced that at all.
“I know other people haven’t had the exact same results, but I’m also not 100% sure that people have what I’m bringing to the table as well,” he continued. “That gets lost in a lot of the conversation. If you don’t like what’s going on, you can leave. I did that to the NFL, I did that to Barstool, a couple different places. Freedom is something you earn, it’s not something you’re given. I’m very fortunate to be at that particular spot. The people I’m working with for this match are awesome. We’re going to put together a classic, we’re going to try out best at least, to do WrestleMania some respect.”
Other matches lined up for the second night of WrestleMania include WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Universal Champion Roman Reigns, AJ Styles vs. Edge and Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn. Stay tuned for full coverage of the entire weekend!
