From what I can gather, after Friday’s SmackDown revealed Pat McAfee as the person who convinced Randy Orton to go full-Viper in his quest to take the WWE title from Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 42, most of the wrestling internet isn’t booing McAfee for his excellent heel work.
Still, as a sports and sports entertainment viewer who’s generally tired of McAfee’s overall schtick the past several years, I can’t deny he plays a wrestling heel really well. In fact, while I knew of and enjoyed what little
I’d seen of him before then, it was Pat’s heel run in NXT that helped turn me into a McAfee fan in the first place. I still can’t tell if my wanting to punch him in his annoying face is a work or a shoot, though.
Either way, McAfee kept at it on his YouTube/ESPN (YEAH) show today (April 6). He made his ‘Mania angle with Orton #1 in his Top Five Headlines from the weekend. He also expanded on his motivations for helping Randy save the business, and WrestleMania 42:
“It was a fun time on Friday night, letting the world know that — yeah, you remember when Randy Orton came on the show at the [NFL] Combine. And then you remember shortly after that, I said that I thought the business passed me by?
“And then all of a sudden, Randy’s on the phone with somebody, motivating him, dominating everybody. Oh yeah, maybe it was me telling him, ‘Hey bud, my daughter is about to turn three-years-old. I would like her to be a wrestling fan, but I would like wrestling to be what wrestling’s supposed to be, especially at the top of the card.‘
“6 feet, five inches, 275 pounds of perfection from the wrestling gods has been sitting here this whole time. And is he on TV all day, every day? Absolutely not. He was actually sent home for about six months recently. It’s like, ‘What?!?! How is this guy being sent home? So we’re saving the business, when Randy wins his 15th title at ‘Mania, and the future of the business is going to be led by what the wrestling gods deemed perfection in Randy Orton.“
He didn’t wait long to get in a plug for his bosses at WWE TKO:
“Anything that doesn’t involve Randy, in my eyes? Shite. If Randy Orton’s involved? Good. Somehow, tickets are still available for WrestleMania. Just know, we got some things cooking, and you’re gonna want to be in Las Vegas. It’s gonna be spectacular, it’s gonna be special. In future wrestling generations, fans will have to look back on the night that was in Vegas and say, ‘That was the moment that that GOAT saved the entire business by becoming 15-time World champion.’ Shout out to Randy Orton. Thank you, Randy, for doing that.”
After that, he was back on you “IWC dipshits”. Pat says he and Randy are also doing it for you, since you have no idea what you’ve been missing with Rhodes on top. That’s even though you were the ones who said Cody should be on top? I don’t know, that’s what McAfee told Darius Butler when his former Indianapolis Colts teammate asked him what the “IWC” was.
Check it out:
Does that change your take on WrestleMania’s Undisputed WWE title “progrum” (to use the language of Pat’s show)?
