One of the highlights of the 2023 Royal Rumble was the surprise return of Pat McAfee to the WWE commentary desk alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves. The SmackDown announcer hadn’t been seen in the company since September, when commitments with ESPN took him off WWE airwaves.
At the very start of the Royal Rumble premium live event, McAfee’s music rang throughout the Alamodome and he made his way to the commentary desk, much to the delight of Michael Cole, who insisted he had no idea that his friend was making his return that night. Corey Graves was less enthusiastic, grumbling that he wanted to leave the arena and head straight to Raw the next night in Tulsa, OK.
Cole was a recent guest on The Pat McAfee show, and he spoke about the great surprise of McAfee’s return, saying he didn’t even realize what was happening at first as the former NFL punter no longer enters to Seven Nation Army.
Pat McAfee Needed Michael Cole To Explain Uncle Howdy Live On The Air
Elsewhere on the podcast, Cole spoke about his wife, saying that she doesn’t watch wrestling on a regular basis, particularly after his “embarrassing” match against Jerry Lawler at WrestleMania 27. When one of the co-hosts asked whether he tries to explain the current WWE storylines to her without any context, Pat McAfee began speaking about Uncle Howdy and revealed that Cole had to explain the gimmick to him on air.
“McAfee: Uncle Howdy… Uncle Howdy is this… he had to to that to me AJ, did you hear that at all? So… what’s going on here? What is…
Cole: Oh, that was classic. And I explained it to you on the air, I explained it to you on the air. It was great, it was good.”
As it turns out, McAfee was unfamiliar with the current storyline between Bray Wyatt and Uncle Howdy, so Cole had to fill in his broadcast partner live on the air during the Mountain Dew Pitch Black Match.
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