Pat McAfee has finally broken his silence regarding his several week absence without explanation from his role as the color commentator for WWE Monday Night Raw on Netflix.
After co-hosting several of the initial WWE Raw on Netflix shows, the former NFL star turned big-time ESPN host and personality has been noticeably absent from his chair alongside Michael Cole every Monday night for the past seven weeks.
During today’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, McAfee finally explained his reason for stepping away from WWE, and how he feels the product isn’t suffering without him at all.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the episode where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also below is a video archive of the portion of his show where Pat McAfee explained his WWE absence.
On his reason for stepping away from WWE: “I got really tired. I hit [a wall]. I’ve been going since Dublin. They started Raw early, and I’m like an energy guy. I don’t need a lot of sleep. I just got to Money in the Bank in LA and I was on the East Coast for TST, then I went down to Paris Island, then I went to LA for Money in the Bank, and I could just feel it. ‘Oh my God, my brain is not operating right now.’ I talked to others that maybe experienced mental exhaustion before whenever they had it. I talked to them and been like, ‘I’m staring down what you went through. I knew this moment was going to happen at some point.’ It happens to people. I talked to people about it happening and what they went through when it happened. As Money in the Bank was happening, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it. I have finally hit it.’ I never thought it was going to happen. You add in my daughter and wanting to be around. The daily show, the travel. Also, trying my best, I know a lot of wrestling fans don’t think this, but I was trying to put everybody over. maximum effort, every time, trying to put people over. I think that with the travel, me not getting back to 2-3 AM on Monday. That’s the beginning of our work week Tuesday – Friday, I have 12 hours left of being on.”
On how he got through the exhaustion: “We still have to do a show. I stopped going to Monday Night Raw, so that took away two planes and a two hour sleep a night week away from the schedule. Stacked a couple of those weeks.”
On how the WWE product isn’t suffering without him: “Corey Graves, so good. Wade Barrett, so good. For me, at the commentator position, the show moves on regardless. The ability to not feel absolutely fucking terrible for having to take a step back because I’m tired, WWE on the other side, they have such a hard work and travel mindset, they understand. They’ve been great. I will always love the WWE. I miss it, but I don’t think I would have made it.”
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
