He felt it was time and is fine with how things turned out.
Present day, Kevin Egan is the lead host for the Apple TV+ show MLS 360. From 2021-2024, Egan was a member of WWE under the name ‘Kevin Patrick’. He was brought in to be a backstage reporter and host and then made the transition to commentary. He was released from the company in January.
He opened up about his time in WWE during his appearance on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch. Egan stated that there was a collision on the horizon between his football broadcast and WWE broadcast duties and football was always going to win. He added that he was not WWE’s long-term guy.
Egan felt it was time for him to leave and wanted to go. Weeks prior to his release, he chatted with Michael Cole and expressed that if the feeling was it was time to make a change, he understood. When it came time for the release, Egan relayed to Cole that he’s the best boss he’s ever had. The former Raw and SmackDown announcer said if WWE is in Atlanta, he’ll stop by to say hello.
Football was always gonna win, if there was ever a collision and there was one on the horizon, very clearly on the horizon. If I’m in Boise, Idaho on a Friday night, for example, doing SmackDown, how am I gonna be in a studio in New York at 1 o’clock on a Saturday? And this was coming. I also wasn’t their long-term guy. They need someone who’s all in. Michael Cole has missed two shows in 27 years.
And they (the fans) deserve more. That chair deserves more. So for me, it was time. I wanted to leave. I got to a place where, like, I had a chat with Michael Cole weeks before and I said, ‘Look, if there’s a thinking here that I move on, fine, I’m good. Let’s hug it out, let’s be on our way.’ I still talk to Michael Cole on the phone. When we went through with the release and everything else, I told him he’s the best boss I ever had and I stand by that. He’s a tremendous guy and everyone I worked with was great. It’s a chapter in your life. I wasn’t overly upset about it at all, I don’t think they were. I think it worked out best for the product on TV and for me. I’m all in on what I’m doing now and I love it, but when WWE’s in Atlanta, I’ll pop down and I’ll say hello to some friends.
He reacted to Becky Lynch’s positive remarks about him after his exit and spoke highly of the current Women’s World Champion. He said Cody Rhodes, Sheamus, Finn Bálor and others reached out and they were relieved when they learned he was not upset about exiting WWE.
Kevin added that when he was with his mother in Ireland, she told him his travel schedule between his football and WWE jobs did not make sense.
She’s (Becky Lynch) a lovely person. Deep down, a lovely, lovely human being and so is Colby (Seth Rollins). But so many are in there and Becky actually wasn’t around. She had-had her baby Roux and she wasn’t around for like the first six, seven months or so when I was there and then, when I first went over to say hello to her for the first time, she said, ‘Ah! I’ve been dying to meet you’ and she was just so welcoming and friendly. Sheamus has become a friend, Finn (Bálor) obviously has become a friend too and others too like Cody Rhodes is wonderful. They all reached out afterwards, after I left the company and I think a lot of them were relieved. Becky certainly was when I said, ‘No, it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for me, it’s a good thing for WWE.’ This is just a smart move. It makes sense all around and for me, it was a relief because I’ll tell ya, when I was back in Ireland over Christmas, my mother sat me down and she said, ‘Kevin, this doesn’t make sense. How are you going to be in the middle of somewhere — you name it, in Canada or in the U.S. — on a Friday night and what if there’s no red-eye and then you’re gonna kill yourself physically and then you’ve got the prep for 14 M.L.S. games or whatever. It doesn’t add up’ so, beautiful chapter in my life. I’ve become a better person for it and a better broadcaster for it but I’m also better for not being there right now as well.
Earlier in the conversation, while discussing how he made his way into WWE, Kevin stated that he does not think he would’ve taken the commentary job if that was presented to him off the bat. He feels the backstage reporter role was manageable and that’s what he wanted.
He feels he would not have been ready for a WWE commentary job at the time and said that’s not to say he was fully ready when he did take the position.
I wanted the job they (WWE) offered me. The job they offered me was a backstage reporter. You’re kind of an actor, in a way, with some hosting duties as well. That was very manageable. If they had offered me play-by-play at the time, no chance. I don’t think I would have taken it, because I wasn’t ready in any way and not to suggest I was fully ready when I did take it but I wasn’t in any place close to being ready at the time whereas backstage reporter, I could really get to know everybody, I could really study the industry and I love television anyway, I love entertainment, I love studying the industry like you do and to be there and to just study, you know, how impressive quite honestly the production is, the producers, the directors, how everything is put together in a way last-minute and yet, expertly delivered. It was cool to be part of so, to go in at that level was perfect for me at the time.
Speaking about those who were helpful while he was doing commentary, he mentioned Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Adam Copeland, MVP and John Cena.
It was (Michael) Cole and honestly, anybody that I asked would be very helpful (while I was doing commentary for WWE). I think of real veterans that are there, like obviously, Corey Graves throughout my time there was tremendously helpful and became a friend. I think Edge, for me, and John Cena were two that really stood out. MVP as well. Those three and when you think about the ages of all three, it’s like they’ve gotten to a certain stage in their career and they’ve made a decision, probably subconsciously, I wanna pass down this knowledge in any way that I can. So those three in particular were just standout human beings. When Cena was back in September, October or so for a run, every week we’d end up talking and every week, I’d find myself just in awe of this fella. Forget as a wrestler, forget about it or even as an actor. He was just an incredibly compelling conversationalist and very interested in helping in any way and he said to me one day, ‘How can I help?’ Out of nowhere. We’re chatting away and he said, ‘You’re a soccer guy, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve come from a soccer background’ and he said, ‘What do you call a soccer match that doesn’t have anything on the line?’ And I said, ‘Like a friendly?’ And he said, ‘Yeah. I was thinking exhibition’ and he said, ‘Well what do you gotta do? You have to find the stakes.’ So in any match, he told me with WWE, even if it’s a match that really doesn’t have much of a background to it, find stakes. Hammer home the stakes, tell those stories and give everybody a hook and that’s the common denominator here. When I go back and forth between soccer broadcasting and previously with WWE, you’re a storyteller.
The current WWE main roster broadcast teams are Michael Cole, Pat McAfee, Samantha Irvin, Cathy Kelley and Jackie Redmond on Raw.
On the SmackDown front, it’s Corey Graves, Wade Barrett, Byron Saxton, Kayla Braxton and the newest addition, now-former NXT ring announcer, Alicia Taylor.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Sports Media with Richard Deitsch with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
