Is Pat McAfee Still With WWE?

Pat McAfee stepped away from his Friday Night SmackDown color commentary role with WWE last September as he had been hired by ESPN's College GameDay to work as a panelist. He's since popped up in WWE a couple of times, first to work the commentary desk for the Men's Royal Rumble match in January and later for an impromptu match with The Miz at WrestleMania 39. However, as McAfee pondered over the future of The Pat McAfee Show, he openly questioned if he wanted to stay with WWE as the company pursued a sale. This happened while the rumors of WWE being bought by Saudi Arabia were still prevalent and before the UFC merger was announced by Endeavor.

McAfee has since agreed to a highly lucrative deal with ESPN to move The Pat McAfee Show over there. In a new interview with Sports Illustrated's Jimmy Traina, he was asked if working with WWE was still on the table. 

"Myself, Michael Cole, Nick Khan, Kevin Dunn, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. We are all still very much in contact with each other," McAfee said (h/t WrestlingNews.co). "Two of those men, Nick Khan and Vince were people that, when I had a question about something that was going on through this whole process ESPN deal), very much answered my questions. Vince gave me a stern 'Do not' for one thing that I was thinking about doing because I did not appreciate the way something was kind of laid out by one particular person in a company that I was kind of negotiating with and everything like that. And I sent a question like, 'This was said. Am I allowed to say this back?' And it took a couple of hours, and I got a 'DO NOT,' period, and then it was like, 'Now is not the time' or something like that. I'm like, 'Okay, f—.' Business-wise, I will listen to him and then Nick, the same thing. It'll be another situation because Nick comes from the sports media world. So Nick knows pretty much all of these humans that I was kind of talking to and everything like that. So like...Nick Khan was like a ghost in this thing where I'd be like, 'This person, what type of person are they?' That type of stuff. He would send me back like boom, boom, boom, bang, pow, think about this. Thank you. It's like, my relationship with the WWE, I don't want to say it's stronger than it's ever been, but actually stronger than it's ever been, and we are all very much talking about how I get back into the universe because I love it. 

"We talked about this earlier. I love it. I think I'm good at it. I think I'm supposed to be there," he continued. "I understand why people are doing things. I think that's why commentating was a good spot for me alongside Michael Cole, the greatest of all time. Getting to get Stunned by Stone Cold Steve Austin, I lived out dream after dream after dream over there. I love that place. Our relationship is very strong. I know you said you can say anything to that but actually, I think we're working. We're all trying to figure it out."