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Pat McAfee ‘sprinted back’ for dream moment with The Rock on SmackDown

The popular ESPN personality also says he’s ‘still very confident’ he’ll work with Michael Cole on commentary again some day. 

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wasn’t the only big name who made a surprise return on SmackDown last night (Sept. 15) in Denver.

In a move a certain wrestling blogger probably should have foreseen when he was writing about Rocky’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show in nearby Boulder, Colorado yesterday afternoon, Pat McAfee showed up at Ball Arena to welcome The Great One back to WWE.

Before he was done, The People’s Champ also taught Pat Mac his signature move. It wasn’t as good as his Stunner Sell, but the punter-turned-pundit got the job done:

WWE’s YouTube

Kayla Braxton chatted with McAfee after his show-opening segment with Rocky & his old WrestleMania 38 nemesis Austin Theory, and called it an “absolute honor”.

“As soon as I heard there was an opportunity to do something, I literally sprinted back.”

After some reluctant props for Theory, Pat talked about how getting to share the scene with Rock last night was just the latest item crossed off a life-long WWE fan’s bucket list:

“The WWE — my entire life — has been a dream destination. And everything that I’ve been able to do here, I’m incredibly lucky for, thankful for, grateful for it. I try to enjoy. I definitely did that tonight. Yeah, it’s a dream being back for sure.”

McAfee also had much praise (and a little ball busting) for the man he used to call SmackDown with, Michael Cole. Pat thinks we’ll see him on commentary next to the play-by-play man he calls “the greatest of all time, bar none” some day:

“I’m incredibly lucky that I got to work with Michael Cole, and I am still very confident that it will happen again.”

While his success at ESPN and beyond makes it unlikely we’ll ever have the West Virginia University & Indianapolis Colts’ great back as a regular on WWE television, Pat’s promised MASSIVE things en route to the WWE Hall of Fame.

Last night had to be one of them.

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