Pat McAfee nearly walked out of WWE during his first WrestleMania due to a confrontation with Michael Cole.
2019 marked Pat McAfee’s first WrestleMania as an official part of WWE, but the day nearly ended in disaster. Michael Cole has spoken in the past about blasting McAfee for showing up in tuxedo shorts on that occasion, and speaking to Stephanie McMahon on Stephanie’s Places, McAfee gave his side of the story.
“I had my Sunday best on, got these sick tuxedo shorts on, had them tailored. I’m a fashion God all of a sudden. I get a call, like we’re gonna rehearse something. Walk all the way up there, sit down in gorilla. Holy sh*t, Undertaker’s here. Holy, that’s Undertaker right there. Your husband was there. Wow, Mr. H is here.
You know, I’m taking it all in. I’m like, very pumped to be there, right? Michael Cole, you know, he’s the one that set this whole thing up for me to be a part of. I go, ‘Mr. Cole, is it time to rehearse?’ And he goes, ‘Not like that!’ And he spazzes, I mean full on tantrum. I’ll say, I’ll call it a tantrum. And he goes, ‘You’re not going on the air like that.’ Kicks me out of Gorilla. And I’m like, Who the f*ck are you talking to right now? Like, almost I was about to fight Michael Cole.”
Stephanie McMahon interjected, pointing out that Cole had embarrassed McAfee in front of so many of his wrestling idols, and McAfee confirms that he was shocked as he’d been proud of his look and being part of the show.
A Photo Of LeBron James Helped Keep Pat McAfee’s Job With WWE
Continuing, Pat McAfee explained that someone presented a photo of NBA legend LeBron James wearing a similar outfit to a formal occasion, and he was able to complete his job on the day of WrestleMania.
“Somebody showed a picture of LeBron James wearing shorts with a suit, and they said, ‘Hey, this is like, kind of a look these days.’ So Michael Cole had to walk into where I was, tail between his legs, and he had to come in and say, ‘Oh, it’s actually okay if you wear those.’ I go ‘Oh, really.’ So now he feels stupid, right? And I know he feels stupid, okay? So I go out, do my thing.”
After Pat McAfee left for the day, he became nervous when he didn’t hear from Michael Cole for a few days. Thankfully, the two men worked things out, and their partnership on Monday Night Raw was allowed to flourish.
“Come back. I leave, go home. Don’t hear from Cole, okay. So now it’s like, ‘Am I ever getting invited back?’ Cole calls me back a few days later. We have it out ,full conversation, and literally, since then, best of friends, yeah. And I think he learned a lot about me in that moment. I learned a lot about him. This whole partnership on raw that thing was almost very quickly over, very quickly over.”
Pat McAfee is set to return to in-ring action against Gunther at Backlash on May 10th.
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit Stephanie’s Places on ESPN and link back to this article with a h/t to ITR Wrestling.