Pat McAfee Talks His Pro Wrestling Training, His Dream NXT Opponent, AEW
Pat McAfee has made quite the transition in a few short years. He's gone from being a Pro Bowl punter in the NFL to a host on Barstool Sports to now being a commentator for NXT.
But the broadcast booth may not be McAfee's only goal in WWE as he told Nick Hausman on WINCLY.
"It's every kid's dream?to one day become a Superstar or commentator," revealed McAfee. "I think maybe there's a chance in the future for both of those things.
"They might try me out on some things if I do well?Right now we're just seeing what works, seeing what fits, see what they hate, see what they love and see what can grow."
Probably every wrestling commentator first had dreams of being a wrestler and McAfee is no different. He even has his sights set on one day possibly being immortalized with the greatest honor in wrestling.
"I have dreams and aspirations of taking a stroll down the ramp at a pay-per-view setting," admitted McAfee. "Everybody has those dreams as a kid and that'd be really cool...
"Hopefully I can end up in the WWE Hall of Fame one day."
McAfee has and said his training was fun but painful.
"I bought a wrestling ring in either my third or fourth year in the league. I had it built in my barn and didn't use it much except for at parties when my friends kids would want to get in there," said McAfee.
"As soon as I retired a guy named Rip Rogers who used to train at OVW and lives 10 minutes from my house would chit-chat with me about "rasslin'." He would train me like 3-4 times a week to get me in shape and to see if I ever wanted to do it if I could do it or not.
"I was getting my ass kicked, getting chopped and having bruises on my chest, but I was having a blast."
McAfee has appeared on the pre-show panel and worked as a host for several NXT TakeOver events, so he has seen the NXT Superstars up close. He was asked if he were to step in a ring, who would he want his dream NXT opponent to be.
McAfee then talked about his history with Adam Cole who called him a dork for wearing jorts and cites him as the reason he appeared at NXT Indy.
"[Cole's] a guy that I would love to see do very well, and whenever that happens, I get a chance to run down and give a swift kick to the face. It would be a good time," stated McAfee.
McAfee was then asked to share his thoughts on AEW and if they will end up being the best alternative promotion to WWE.
"I have no clue, honestly. More wrestling as a fan is good especially now that I'm watching more and more stuff," stated McAfee. "I think it's very hard to say that anybody's going to be able to compete with the WWE. I just think it's gonna be difficult to do that. That's just like the AAF or XFL attempting to compete with the NFL right out of the gate.
"I think what AEW has done on social media is impressive. I think the amount of interest they've garnered is impressive. Being able to sell out arenas is incredible but WWE is at the top of the mountain for a reason. I think it's great for fans and professional wrestlers but I think saying they're gonna compete with WWE is a wild, wild amount of pressure to be putting on AEW whenever they haven't even gone on TV yet."
Pat's full interview with Wrestling Inc was recently included in an episode of our WINCLY podcast. You can listen to it in the embedded player below. In it Pat discusses Sam Roberts' recent controversial comments about Bianca Belair on a Takeover Kick-Off Show panel, Tommaso Ciampa's injury, the rough response the NXT Superstars got from Lafayette on RAW, possibly stepping in the ring for an NXT match, the return of the XFL, his possible involvement in the XFL and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.