Michael Cole Recalls Heated WrestleMania Clash With Pat McAfee That Nearly Led To Walkout

[WWE Forum News]

Legendary WWE announcer Michael Cole has looked back on a heated incident with broadcast colleague Pat McAfee which nearly led to McAfee storming out of WrestleMania.

Since his arrival on WWE commentary, McAfee’s energy and overall enthusiasm has played a major part in Cole coming across as more authentic onscreen, resulting in some of the best work of his career. While both announcers have great chemistry and are calling the action on Raw on Netflix, they have not always seen eye to eye.


While appearing on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Cole recalled McAfee being a part of the WrestleMania 37 kick-off panel in Tampa where the announcer turned up in shorts for the show:

“With Pat, it’s different. Pat and I are really good friends. He’s always been a wrestling fan his whole life. He came to one of our house shows in Indiana a number of years ago, and we just started talking, and he’s like, ‘I’d like to try this.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, you know,’ he was at Barstool all the time, and we’re like, ‘Why don’t you come in and start doing some stuff with NXT?’ And he came in and he started doing the countdown shows and all that. And he and I got really, really close, and then our relationship imploded for a night.
Because at WrestleMania a number of years ago…I’m no longer in charge of the announcers. I used to not only be an announcer, but I was [also] in charge of all the announcers. So I was a VP in the company doing all that. And so we brought Pat in to do the WrestleMania kick-off show. And you know, everybody at WrestleMania is in tuxedos and ties and the whole nine yards, and Pat shows up in shorts. Now, they were tuxedo shorts, but he shows up in shorts.”

Continuing, Cole recounted becoming irate at McAfee for not following the dress code. Cole then yelled at McAfee in front of multiple executives, resulting in an upset McAfee storming to the locker room and nearly out of the venue:

 

[Tommy Shelby]

Watched this yesterday and Cole expressed with huge smile on his face he feels relaxed now that Vince isn't barking in his ear about stupid shit and his he can be himself more and it shows in commentary. Do I think we'd see Jey Uso winning the rumble with the old man in charge , hell no. Do Pat and Cole Both be faces on commentary, hell no. He explained that its different to the Smackdown set up with Wade Barrett being a heel so the dynamics are different to pat and cole . Very well worth a watch if you like honest and candid interviews. He's just signed an 8 year contract till he's 64 so we've got another 8 years till he retires. He also put Corey Graves over which was nice to hear.