I mean, there’s a 100% chance that this is a work, because things in the WWE universe don’t happen if they aren’t; but anyway, I just wanted to say that I took tremendous enjoyment out of Adam Cole blasting into Pat McAfee during his shitty radio show, because I fucking can’t stand Pat McAfee, and it’s a pleasure to hear a strong talker like Adam Cole tear into him.
Since I’ve devolved into a way more filthy casual wrestling fan over the years, my only real exposure to the WWE product really is down to NXT re-broadcasts once they’re made available on the Network, and PPV events. Without cable, I can’t watch RAW, I can’t watch NXT live, and frankly I can never find the time or want to watch Smackdown despite the fact that I can watch FOX on Friday nights. NXT UK is currently shuttered due to coronavirus, and I don’t even think the WWE personnel even watches Main Event or 205 Live.
So occasionally, I’ll have the wherewithal to tune into a WWE PPV, and over the last few years that I’ve been able to intercept a pre-show, my thoughts have often been, who the fuck is this guy??
This ginger, jew-fro’d geek with a receding hairline and a voice that makes me think of the scientist guy from The Simpsons, so having said that, I am naturally referring to Sam Roberts. I had no idea who he was, and why he got to be on the pre-show panel with guys like Booker T and Renee Young, but all I knew was that I thought he was annoying, and I was not a fan.
But then came along this other guy, some douchebag-looking Chad, who exuded a frat-bro personality tantamount to his appearance, and my brow crinkled even more at the notion that the WWE kept opening their doors to these douchey marks to be on their pre-shows. Well that turned out to be Pat McAfee, and he immediately gave me X-Pac Heat vibes, and I was really tempted to tune out entirely thanks to him, but I wanted to watch the PPV, so I grit my teeth and soldered through.
Honestly, I had no clue to Pat McAfee was, and I had zero idea that he was an actual former NFL player and I use that term loosely, because he was but a mere punter (and not a Michael Turk-like punter), which means he probably saw physical contact with another human being maybe six times in his entire career. What’s more amazing is that he was a punter for the Colts, and living in a Southern region, means I got a very good share of Colts games down in Georgia, and considering he was on the squad during Peyton Manning’s last two years on the club, I feel like I should’ve actually seen him before.
And maybe I did, but considering Peyton Manning had a jihad against allowing punters into the game, and the fact that McAfee was a punter in general, means that I had no recollection of his existence, much less credentials to why he should be allowed to be in WWE programming.
Anyway, McAfee proved to be as insufferably obnoxious as he looked, and he would be the worst part of WWE programming as far as I was concerned. He made Sam Roberts more tolerable, and it was actually ironic that whether it was premeditated or not, their on-screen “feuding” actually put me in situations where I actually liked Roberts, that’s how obnoxious McAfee was.
Adam Cole lighting into McAfee on his own radio program, was most definitely a work, but I’m guessing that both of them had an understanding that the dialogue was going to be mostly off-the-cuff, and most things would probably okay in the name of seeking authenticity. And when McAfee started poking fun at Adam Cole’s general size, and how he was “small” compared to the Hogans, Cenas and Batistas of history, I took great enjoyment out of Cole rebutting with McAfee’s general worthlessness as a mere punter, in the grand spectrum of football team constructs.
It all ended with Cole cursing out McAfee, all his stooges and storming out of the studio, and regardless of the fact that it was in all likelihood a work, was still refreshing to hear someone say a lot of the things that I’d imagine lots of likeminded fans would love to have said to McAfee.
