WWE: Pat McAfee on SmackDown Appearance, More Talent Names Confirmed for Tryouts, RAW & MNF Update

Sep 19, 2023

Pat McAfee Comments on Surprise SmackDown Appearance “Came Together Real Quick”

This past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Denver, Colorado featured former WWE commentator Pat McAfee making a surprise appearance on the show along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

In a recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show podcast, host Pat McAfee reflected on his recent appearance for WWE and how his appearance came together at the last minute.

“Hey, you want to go on SmackDown, open the show, and then be in the ring with The Rock whenever he does his thing?’ Uh, yeah. But there 5:34 local time. Traffic from Boulder to Denver was not great. Show starts six [o’clock] local time. So a lot a people talk about ‘How long did everything come together?’ It’s like real quick. Everything came together real quick. What an honor to be back there, honestly. Absolute honor to be back there. Great to see everybody. I thank them mightily for the opportunity to do that.”

McAfee also gave his thoughts about the huge pop Johnson received from the crowd for his surprise appearance and his backstage segment with Johnson and John Cena.

“Then this pop right here, [when The Rock came out], look at that shit. That’s Attitude Era. That’s way back in the day. The Rock hadn’t been back in four years. So this Denver crowd was loud to begin with. When I went out there, I heard them. I was like, ‘This is a louder crowd than it normally is.’ Then all the sudden, not only is it an active and loud crowd, then you got the ‘If You [Smell], what a night, dude. I’m so thankful that I was even asked to be a part of that. It was so cool to see everybody. Then watching The Rock just in there. Watching his face, I said, ‘It’s a two-hour show.’ He looks at me, ‘The Rock knows it’s a two-hour show.’ [The Cena and Rock interaction] was amazing. They are like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have you guys walk out here.’ This was literally on our way out. They’re like, ‘Can we get a shot of you guys walking out?’ Then obviously, we’ll have Cena in there as well. I was like, ‘You don’t need to have me in here. Listen, I understand the game here. There is no reason for me to be here. I appreciate it.’ They’re like, ‘No, need you there.’ Okay, yeah, absolutely. Then I’m standing there, just like everybody else, watching these two. I’m like, ‘Are these two about to set up for a WrestleMania run right now?’ I didn’t know if it was about to be a work or not. Then obviously, ‘I see you smiling,’ the whole thing. It was electrifying.
It’s like for me now, people are like, ‘Hey, do you want to,’ and they literally just draw up my dream thing. ‘You want to do that?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think I have to do that.’ That was Friday. The WWE has seemingly done that for me more than any other group of humans on earth, so I appreciate the hell out of all of them over there.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

More Indie Talent Names Confirmed for This Week’s WWE Tryouts

As noted before, WWE will be holding a new set of tryouts at their Performance Center in Orlando, Florida this week.

PWInsider, BodySlam.net, and Fightful Select reported that the following indie talents are also confirmed to be participating in this week’s tryouts:

Richard Holliday – former Major League Wrestling talent
Madi Wrenkowski – NWA talent and also made several appearances for AEW and Ring of Honor
David Goldy – Monster Factory trainee and has made appearances for AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling
Jay Malachi
Copeland Barbee
Jamie Stanley – NWA talent and referee
Ray Jaz- former Major League Wrestling talent and has made appearances for AEW
Hollyhood Haley J – Ohio Valley Wrestling talent
Kelsey Heather – Women of Wrestling talent
Valentina Rossi – WOW talent and had made several appearances in AEW and WWE
Jazmin Allure – former WOW talent and has made several appearances in AEW

WWE RAW Expected to Face Very Stiff NFL Competition This Year

WWE RAW is currently expected to face much stiffer than usual sports competition from this season’s NFL Monday Night Football.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, ABC will be broadcasting the entire schedule of games for this season’s Monday Night Football on their network alongside with ESPN. This reportedly will be the first time ABC will broadcast an entire season of MNF on their network.

Besides Monday Night Football, ABC reportedly will also air a simulcast primetime game on Saturday, December 30th and a doubleheader game on Saturday, January 6th. ABC and ESPN reportedly will also be airing playoff games on January 15th and either January 20th or 21st as well.