Pat McAfee Talks Sam Roberts' Controversial Comments On NXT, How He Started Working With WWE
In just a few short years Pat McAfee has gone from a Pro Bowl punter in the NFL to a host on Barstool Sports to now a commentator for WWE. All of those positions require different things from your employer, and McAfee spoke with Wrestling Inc. on the WINCLY to discuss what WWE wants out of him as a pre-show panelist.
"That's a great question," said McAfee. "I follow NXT hardcore now because I have to talk about those things. But they basically want me to talk from a sports and a fan standpoint. They don't tell me any direction to go?I'm not privy to the meetings of what they're looking for in the shows. I assume if they want me to be different they'll tell me and if it sucks they'll fire me and if it's not, I'll just keep doing my thing.
"I think analysis can cause paralysis sometimes so I don't go in there with much thought of what they're looking for. I'm just gonna go be myself."
McAfee says he heard the horror stories about working for WWE before joining them but his experience with the company has been great.
"I heard these stories about it's a hard place to work and everything's heavily scripted and they want to fact-check everything," stated McAfee. "But getting in there, they couldn't be more hospitable to me. I heard a lot of horror stories about working in the sports entertainment business. But now getting in there? it's basically a family. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody takes care of everybody.
McAfee says that Michael Cole just texted him out of the blue one day and that's how everything got started. He also says that WWE doesn't limit him creatively and they don't tell him what he can and can not say.
"They told me they just want me to be me. They don't tell me to say anything. They don't tell me to go any certain way?This is awesome. Now I get to basically be myself, still be a fan and get to create content with them. For me it's a dream come true and a dream scenario," said McAfee.
McAfee has always been a WWE fan and didn't think about working for them until NXT came to Indianapolis and he started making content for them.
"I got into NXT when they came to NXT Indy at a live event," Mcafee said before adding that he was always a "WWE guy" and didn't really follow New Japan, AEW or the other promotions.
"I didn't get a call from anybody for a long time. It wasn't like an act of me seeking them out either. They called me after hearing I was at the NXT Indy show, I shot a video about Adam Cole and fast forward a couple of months later, I get a call from Michael Cole and he was like, 'Hey, are you an NXT fan?'
"I was like, 'Yeah, I've actually been into it since they came to town.' He was like, 'Cool. Will you do our pre-show?'"
Mcafee says that's how it started and his job is to make content, send it to WWE and do pre-shows.
"I have no idea what the role is going to grow into because it's already grown so much from what it was originally supposed to be. I have no clue and am just gonna see what happens. Hopefully help the company that helped me so many times and I hope to help them move into the "forever" stage," said McAfee.
McAfee does the pre-shows with respected wrestling writer Sam Roberts and Roberts recently made some inflammatory comments on a number of Superstars including Finn Balor and Bianca Belair. McAfee was as shocked as anyone to hear Roberts say those things.
"Hey. That was an insane moment wasn't it when Sam did that? I was mind-blown because Sam is always the super wrestling nerd?and then all of a sudden it comes out of nowhere," said McAfee.
"I don't agree with him but it feels like Sam Roberts is becoming quite a character."
However, one shouldn't expect McAfee to be taking shots at wrestlers anytime soon as he prefers making people happy.
"I don't enjoy that type of stuff myself," McAfee said of Roberts' comments. "I enjoy making people happy and hopefully people enjoy it and have a good time.
"I enjoy when people do things. I take it from a standpoint of entertainment and I think if he's drawing up hate on the internet?I assume that's what he's looking to do. For me as a friend of Sam Roberts, I enjoy that."
McAfee also talked a bit about a product he's endorsing: Naturdays.
"Naturdays is a brand new beer launched by your friends from Natural Light," Mcafee said before adding it's not a replacement for Natural Light, just a tag team partner.
"I went to West Virginia University and we were a natural light school, so it's just a perfect fit?.It's really just a perfect fit for both parties. Now I get a chance to enjoy and watch people enjoy the flamingo beautiful can Naturdays on a regular basis. It's a beautiful thing."
McAfee has teamed up with Natural Light to promote their new Naturdays strawberry lemonade beer. Naturdays will be included in Natural Light's variety-77 pack that will only be available in South Padre, TX for spring break. Naturdays is now available and you can find Pat's Naturdays story in the embedded tweet below:
Good morning beautiful people.. I am honored & delighted to say that @naturallight has asked me to be a part of their brand new, "Naturdays" announcement.
A Naturday, is not only a deliciously refreshing beer, it is also when a day becomes A DAY out of nowhere.. Here's mine pic.twitter.com/tua15VOqW2
? Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 25, 2019
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.
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