Pat McAfee further speaks about his appearance on SmackDown.
Kicking off the September 15th SmackDown in Denver, Colorado was Pat McAfee. Earlier in the day, McAfee hosted his show on ESPN from Boulder, Colorado and one of the guests was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Hours later, McAfee and Johnson would be sharing the ring together on SmackDown in a segment that included Austin Theory.
McAfee spoke more about his comeback on the newest edition of The Pat McAfee Show. He said the appearance ‘came together real quick’. They arrived to the venue at 5:34 PM local time and the show started at 6. He added that it was amazing being a part of the Cena-Rock segment.
He shared that-that moment was set up as he and Johnson were walking to the backstage area. Pat expressed that he felt he did not need to be in that moment and initially thought Johnson and Cena might be setting up a program.
‘Hey, you wanna go down SmackDown? Open the show and then be in the ring with The Rock whenever he does his thing?’ ‘Uh, I guess, yeah.’ Got there 5:34 local time, because traffic from Boulder to Denver was not great. Show starts 6 local time. So, a lot of people talk about, ‘How long did everything come together?’ It’s like, real quick. We’re talking everything came together real, real quick. What an honor to be back there honestly. Absolute honor to be back. Great to see everybody. I thank them mightley for the opportunity to do that and then this pop (for The Rock) right here… That’s Attitude Era, that’s way back in the day. The Rock hadn’t been back in four years and this crowd was loud to begin with. When I went out there, I heard it. I was like, oh, this is a louder crowd than it normally is and then all of a sudden, not only is it an active and loud crowd, then you got the, ‘If ya!’ With his social media guy going through the background and a great shot right there. 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 though, you know? And then watching The Rock just in there. You watch his face when I said, ‘It’s a two-hour show’ and he looks at me, ‘The Rock knows it’s a two-hour show…’ That was amazing (being part of the Cena-Rock segment). They were like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have you guys walk out here.’ This is literally on our way out. They’re like, ‘Can we get a shot of you guys walking out? And 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, no, need you there.’ Okay, you said it and then just, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ So 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 cool. It was electrifying.
They told me to stay in the ring, like, ‘Stay in the ring the whole time.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t think I should be in there. We got a thing happening here.’ ‘Stay in the ring and then after, we’ll potentially work a little bit’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, so am I punting? What am I doing? A leg drop? What am I doing? ‘People’s Elbow.’ ‘Oh, okay. I’m doing a People’s Elbow. Alright, sweet.’ So everything’s being told to me and I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. Is that good?’ ‘Yeah,’ and once again, don’t have to happen though. Every time they pitch something, I’m like, ‘All good…’ Thank you for all of that.
The Rock reflected on his return to WWE and called it a top five loudest reaction he’s ever received. To read his full post, click here.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit The Pat McAfee Show with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
