It’s been a busy day in the Reality Era angle between sports personality Pat McAfee and NXT’s Adam Cole.
This morning (July 27) Cole tweeted an apology for his behavior on McAfee’s show last week, where he blew up after repeated needling from the host about his needing help from Undisputed ERA to sustain his record-setting NXT title run, and a crack about his size.
McAfee reacted to the statement on the air during his show this morning, and points out the same hole in Cole’s apology that many fans did - it’s not directed at the former punter.
I think Adam Cole just apologized to me and @tyschmit? #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/068Petkl3C
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 27, 2020
Then, at the close of today’s edition of The Pat McAfee Show, Pat & the boys welcomed none other than Cole’s boss, Triple H. With a chyron that identified him by his proper kayfabe name Hunter Hearst Helmsley (and also added that “Friends call him The Cerebral Assassin”), McAfee and the NXT head honcho talked through the incident from last week.
The Game said the blow-up was a misunderstanding born out of their past contentious-yet-playful interactions in NXT. He apologized, but did not ask Cole to do the same, instead basically offering a version of WWE’s statements whenever a contractor gets a DUI. Trips instead put some blame on both men:
“... I believe Adam is being a little overly sensitive, and you being Pat McAfee, a professional button pusher... you needle people for a living. I didn’t ask him to put out an apology or do anything. He’s a grown man responsible for his own actions.”
He then, of course, invited McAfee to NXT to hash things out. Haitch backtracked after suggesting a booking - he’s also okay with Adam & Pat meeting in private. But either way, I’m guessing that little sit down won’t go well.
“Look Pat, I’ll open it up to you. I don’t know if Florida is on your plans any time soon - I know you get down there sometimes. So any time you’re around, come on the show, I’ll promote your show, I’ll promote you, just like we’ve done before. But, you know, for you guys... and if you don’t want to do it that way, if you just want to just you and him sit in a room with nothing else around it and no promotion, not the show or anything like that, I’m fine with that too. This is you and him, man to man. But if you want to do that separately and because you’re in Florida, whatever that is, jump on the show - cool with that too. If he wants to come up and be on your show, we can do it however you want. But I do think the two of you should sit in a room.”
McAfee revealed that, why, yes! He does have plans to be in Florida after he gets married on Saturday! So we’ll await the promise of explosive footage from their meeting coming our way on a Wednesday night in the near future.
What comes next? We’ll leave that speculation for the comments.