Pat McAfee was interviewed this week on Sam Roberts’ “Notsam Wrestling” podcast.
McAfee was on to talk about his match with Adam Cole at TakeOver: XXX, how he ended up in the ring, almost quitting WWE, what the future holds for him in the wrestling ring and much more.
Pat McAfee said he knew WWE fans would hate him: “I knew the fans were going to hate me. Being a fan who has watched outsiders come in, I’ve always hated them. The WWE has always put them over like hey, look who’s there. They were the good guys. I knew as a fan, I hated those people because I thought in my eyes I thought I would be better than those guys and they are taking a spot from somebody I would rather see. So I felt like the outsider getting into the ring, there is always going to be a sense of distaste for it. I knew that going in and I knew all the way up to the match, I was going to have to prove myself to a lot of people. I wanted people to know I respect what goes on in there. I understand how this thing goes. I was happy that we put on a fight, a show, that people will say that will hold up in 5 or 10 years.”
McAfee talked about his conditioning going into the match with Adam Cole: “I was hitting the Stairmaster hard. I was up to 235 floors. I was in my best shape in 15 years. Two minutes into the match, I am looking around feeling like I just got done doing 250 floors on the stairmaster. I remember my legs started burning. I thought, I don’t know how much longer we have left, but I know I don’t have enough for it. That was 2 minutes into it. Literally, it felt like a survive or die operation. There were a couple times where I was down and I wasn’t 100% sure if I was going to be able to get up. Drake, the ref, said are you good? I looked right in his eyes and said no. He asked me four times if I wanted to quit and we weren’t even tangled up in anything. I think every once in a while you need to have that conversation with your mind on whether you can push through something it doesn’t want to do.”
McAfee said he felt the effects of the match the next day: “Sunday was a surprise. Sunday, when I woke up, not just the lower back or middle back or upper back, but the whole back was sore. Obviously I was flipped on my head with the Canadian Destroyer Panama Sunrise. My neck was hurting as well. My foot, I kicked the steel stairs. By the way, those sons of b*tches are very heavy. Those things do have some weight to them. So my foot and ankle were sore. Sunday was the day where I thought, I don’t know how these women and men do this. By Monday, I got a little bit better and Tuesday I was back to normal.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Notsam Wrestling podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. Check out Sam Roberts’ YouTube channel by clicking here.
