Pat McAfee returns to WWE at Royal Rumble

When Pat McAfee got his dream job talking college football on ESPN last fall, he had to give up his dream job talking pro rassling on Friday Night SmackDAHN. WWE said he was only pressing pause on his regular commentary and occasional in-ring career with them, but as the NFL All Pro-turned-sports media mogul’s calendar filled up, we were starting to worry he wouldn’t be back.

He played dumb about what day Royal Rumble was even happening earlier this week on his daily streaming talk show...

... which may have thrown a few people off the scent, but not everyone. McAfee’s return was rumored this afternoon, and sure enough, shortly after country star Hardy finished introducing the show, PAT MAC WAS BACK BAY BAY!

Michael Cole was excited. Corey Graves was not. The Alamodome crowd and our fellow McAfee Maniacs all around the globe were ecstatic.

We didn’t have to wait long for one of the things we missed in his absence...

... but Pat also missed the memo about “Banger Bros” and referred to WWE Network’s domestic streaming home as “The ‘Cock”. Hopefully his comeback won’t be a short one.

It’s all part of Pat Mac experience. We missed it so.

Read more about that and everything that happened at the 2023 Royal Rumble coverage in our live blog here.