High praise for McAfee.
The commentary team for Monday Night Raw on Netflix is the duo of Michael Cole and Pat McAfee. On a number of occasions, Cole has spoken highly of McAfee and how much fun he’s having with him at the commentary desk.
He shared more positive words about McAfee during a chat with Front Office Sports. Cole shared that he was unsure how much longer he wanted to continue in the role, but then McAfee came into the picture.
I wasn’t quite sure (how much longer I wanted to commentate) until Pat McAfee came along. Pat really opened my eyes to a lot of different things. He made this fun, and we’ve also become really good friends and I think that’s helped our chemistry on the air. I’m having more of a blast now than I’ve ever had in 28 years here in WWE. I’ve held just about every role. I was a manager, I ran the web site, I did all kinds of different things alongside being a talent. But I’ve never had this much fun in my career. When’s the last time you saw Michael Cole yeet’ing with Jey Uso? Or doing goofy stuff like that? It’s never happened, so it’s that evolution process I talked about earlier – being able to evolve in my career. I’ve made myself different than I was a couple of years ago. With that said, I’ve just signed a new contract with the company. It’s a multi-year deal so I’m going to be here a bit longer, and I’m really looking forward to it because I really want to be a part of this whole Netflix launch as we roll through the next few years and bring this company to the next level – and even higher heights than it is right now.
Continuing on that front, Cole said McAfee helped him realize that the wrestling business is supposed to be fun.
I think 100 percent (working with Pat McAfee has increased my longevity in this role & enthusiasm for it). To back up a second, I’ve been here for 28 years, started as an interviewer and moved into the play-by-play role. Really grew in the business, learned from some of the greats, including Paul Heyman and Jim Ross, how to do what I was doing. I think one of the reasons that I’ve been here so long is the ability to… evolve. Over the years, I’ve gone from a straight play-by-play man to a heel. I’ve had matches. I’ve been beaten up. I went back to being a straightforward play-by-play man again. With the emergence of Pat McAfee, Pat’s allowed me to understand that this business is supposed to be fun. It’s not serious, right? This is supposed to be a fun place to work. Sitting back and watching Pat, the one thing I’ve learned is we’re all fans. Pat has allowed me to really open up. He’s taught me how to entertain. It’s sort of like two guys just sitting back on a Monday night drinking a beer and talking about wrestling as opposed to two guys that are trying to act as wrestling commentators. We’re trying to understand and decipher it just as you guys do at home.
Cole and McAfee were on the call for the 2/10 Monday Night Raw in Nashville, Tennessee. POST Wrestling’s review of that show can be heard/watched here.
