Pat McAfee reveals his master plan, says he’ll be at Halloween Havoc

Last Wednesday (Oct. 21), Pat McAfee returned to NXT for the first time since TakeOver XXX. The NFL All-Pro turned one-man sports media brand helped Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch take the Tag titles from Breezango, a match the Brit-Am Brawlers only got because of a series of mysterious attacks on #1 contenders Undisputed ERA earlier in the night.

Regular followers of WWE’s black-and-gold show could make some educated guesses about the story, but McAfee wasn’t spilling, and NXT’s official channels played dumb.

But last night, while the company promoted an appearance by Pat Mac for this week’s Halloween Havoc edition of NXT, the man himself posted this Twitter video spelling out his Ted DiBiase-like scheme. After owning-but-still-excusing his loss to Adam Cole, McAfee explains why he’s still got beef with the ERA. Then he ties together Ridge Holland’s attack on Cole at TakeOver 31, Holland’s injury while battling Burch & Lorcan, and explains why the historically babyface Brawlers bought in.

“Let’s take a trip back to NXT TakeOver 30 - you remember that? I gave Adam Cole all he could handle. Made a couple rookie mistakes, okay. Kicked the stairs, hurt my foot like hell. I mean I almost shot those steel stairs over the barricade because of how strong my leg is, but took advantage of that rookie mistake, cause he’s a scumbag. I go up to the top rope - what am I doing? I don’t need to go up there. I can finish the thing. I go up to the top rope, he takes advantage, rookie mistake - shouldn’t have happened. After the match, instead of reaching out his hand - [D2 impression] ‘Let’s go shake their hands’ - instead of doing that? He flexes on me, ‘That’s Undisputed.’ That didn’t sit lightly with me, no, no, no.

“And although I couldn’t be hands on with the dismantling of the Undisputed ERA and Adam Cole, I knew there was a way they could feel my impact... I can’t be down there every single day, so I hired somebody to take care of my light work. I hired somebody who’s a younger, more handsome and more built version of me. Ridge Holland. You all saw it, when he dumped Adam Cole’s lifeless body over the barricade and walked it off. Who do you think bought him that Mercedes? That was me. You’re welcome Ridge. Now, Ridge got hurt, Ts & Ps to him. I will not ask for a refund, you did your job.

“Now I had to look for a plan B. My guy, that I was gonna run alongside and take over NXT with is now out with a gruesome injury. Who should I call? Well, why not the guy that took out my guy? The psycho from Boston, Oney Lorcan. I reached out to him, I said, ‘Hey pal, you want to make a little money? Want to go on a little bit of a run?’ They said no, they lose to Undisputed ERA [in a #1 contenders match on the Oct. 14 NXT], they call back, we make a deal. They take out the rest of Undisputed ERA, Kyle O’Reilly who’s [air quotes] super noble says ‘Why don’t you guys take the NXT Tag Team title shot tonight?'

“It was perfect. I show up, we win the titles, Undisputed ERA looks like a bunch of bums and stooges, and we’re just getting started.”

As we learned in the build-up to the Cole match, Pat’s natural gift of gab makes him a really great promo. Here he manages to put everyone over, play an entertaining heel, and deliver a detailed, comprehensive explanation of events that were planned (McAfee’s revenge) and unplanned (Holland’s injury).

Is it a complete accounting of events, or will more be revealed?

We’ll start to find out tomorrow night at Halloween Havoc.