Pat McAfee Explains What's Been Preventing His WWE Return

Pat McAfee gave a new update on his future with WWE.

By Connor Casey

Pat McAfee breathed new life into WWE's commentary team when he worked as the Friday Night SmackDown color commentator from April 2021 to September 2022 alongside Michael Cole. He had to step away from the role last year after landing a job with ESPN's College GameDay and made a few surprise appearances at the Royal Rumble in January and WrestleMania 39 in April. However, there's been no indication of him returning to the commentary desk full-time as WWE recently reshuffled its teams to put Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick on the Blue Brand each week.

McAfee explained his absence from WWE in a recent post on his Instagram Story. He recently signed a lucrative multi-year deal to bring The Pat McAfee Show over to ESPN.

Pat McAfee Says He'll Figure Out a Way Back to WWE

"[I miss WWE] like every day, bro, literally. You know, when I was in the NFL, I was envious of the people that could go do indie wrestling cause I wasn't allowed, obviously, under my NFL contract, and also, I couldn't jeopardize what was paying for me and my family, my friends to kind of have a much better life than what we grew up in. So then I get an opportunity to wrestle and do the WWE live, It was an honor and a dream, and I had the time of my f—ing life in there," McAfee said

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"Loved it, every single moment, but now my business has got to a point where I'm very lucky for this and fortunate for this. We've worked our a—es off, but you know I'm incredibly busy, and 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 [WWE] but I just can't timing wise. But we will figure it out," he added.

As for his in-ring work, McAfee's most recent match was at WrestleMania when he beat The Miz in an impromptu match. When do you think McAffee will be back in WWE? Tell us your prediction in the comments! 

WWE Payback 2023 Card

  • World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
  • Women's World Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez
  • Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus (Steel Cage Match)

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