Pat McAfee Issues Apology for Anti-Canada Comments During WWE Elimination Chamber 2025

This past Saturday’s WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 event ath the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada featured Pat McAfee getting involved in a controversial incident. This incident revolved around the Canadian crowd booing the United States national anthem before the start of the show and McAfee making several anti-Canada comments on commentary throughout the show in response. This led to Wade Barrett responding back to several of McAfee’s comments trying to get him to stop his ranting.

These are the MOST STACKED Elimination Chambers that the WWE has EVER had..

THEY BOOED OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM TO START THIS ENTIRE THING..

BUT IT'S GONNA BE A HISTORIC NIGHT #WWEChamber pic.twitter.com/jy8cAYHftd

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 2, 2025

Today’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show featured co-host McAfee giving his thoughts about the situation over the crowd booing the anthem and his reason for the anti-Canada comments in response.

“There have been some things said to me from Canadians that I guess I respect because of the passion that you have for your country. I hope you understand that I was showing the same for mine. You booed my country. During the National Anthem at the Rogers Center, overwhelming and very loud boo. First reaction whenever the National Anthem starts up there is for some of these Canadians to start booing. What? Okay. My entire life, my first reaction whenever someone starts booing the National Anthem is, ‘Fuck you.’

Anytime I’ve ever heard someone boo the National Anthem, my natural reaction is, ‘Let’s fight.’ A lot of Canadians have told me, ‘Why don’t you do a little investigating on why we are booing. Did you hear what your President said?’ Okay, I understand there are political differences at the current moment between us and Canada. I feel like, anytime I think of Canada, I don’t think about what Justin Trudeau does. I don’t think immediately of his decisions or what Canada is doing in the political sphere. I think of Gumpy, I think of poutine, of the magical times I had at Niagara Falls as a teenager.”

McAfee also gave his thoughts about the good times he has had in Canada and issued an apology for his negative comments.

“I understand, now, from the Canadians that they have a lot more passion for their country than I could have ever imagined. A lot of terrible things have been said about me and I understand it. You boo my country, I called your country terrible, let’s shake hands. You said you didn’t boo every citizen of the United States, I didn’t say Canadians were terrible, I said your country was. You booed us, I said you’re terrible, let’s shake hands and move along. I still love Canadians. My first reaction when you boo our country is, ‘Let’s fight.’ I’m sorry. Let’s shake hands.”

I'm very proud and thankful that I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States of America..

Canadians have a lot of passion for their country and I understand it..

You booed our country and I said you're terrible..

Let's shake hands and move along 🤝 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/pG4mvl9jVi

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 3, 2025

In regards to the incident, Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the crowd booing the U.S. national anthem was something that WWE officials had “absolutely” planned to happen at their Elimination Chamber 2025 event.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com