Pat McAfee Reveals How September 15 WWE SmackDown Appearance With The Rock Came Together

WWE

Pat McAfee has revealed how the September 15 WWE SmackDown appearance with The Rock came together.

On the September 15 edition of SmackDown, Pat McAfee made his return to WWE for the first time since WrestleMania 39 to open the show from Denver, Colorado.

After being interrupted by his WrestleMania 38 opponent Austin Theory, McAfee introduced The Rock who returned to the company for the first time since 2019.

Rock and McAfee then took part in a brief backstage segment with John Cena later in the show.

Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, the former NFL star discussed how his eventful return to WWE came together at the last minute. He said:

“Hey, you want to go on SmackDown, open the show, and then be in the ring with The Rock whenever he does his thing?’ Uh, yeah.”

“But there 5:34 local time. Traffic from Boulder to Denver was not great. Show starts six [o’clock] local time.”

“So a lot a people talk about ‘How long did everything come together?’ It’s like real quick. Everything came together real quick.”

“What an honor to be back there, honestly. Absolute honor to be back there. Great to see everybody. I thank them mightily for the opportunity to do that,”

Recalling the amazing pop that The Rock received from the fans, McAfee said:

“Then this pop right here, [when The Rock came out], look at that shit. That’s Attitude Era. That’s way back in the day. The Rock hadn’t been back in four years.”

“So this Denver crowd was loud to begin with. When I went out there, I heard them. I was like, ‘This is a louder crowd than it normally is.’”

“Then all the sudden, not only is it an active and loud crowd, then you got the ‘If You [Smell], what a night, dude.”

McAfee continued on to explain how thankful he was to be asked to be part of this special episode of SmackDown, saying:

“I’m so thankful that I was even asked to be a part of that. It was so cool to see everybody. Then watching The Rock just in there. Watching his face, I said, ‘It’s a two-hour show.’ He looks at me, ‘The Rock knows it’s a two-hour show.’”

“[The Cena and Rock interaction] was amazing. They are like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have you guys walk out here.’ This was literally on our way out. They’re like, ‘Can we get a shot of you guys walking out?’”

“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, need you there.’”

“Okay, yeah, absolutely. 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 electrifying.”

Noting that people come to him and pitch things that are right out of his dreams, McAfee stated:

“It’s like for me now, people are like, ‘Hey, do you want to,’ and they literally just draw up my dream thing. ‘You want to do that?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think I have to do that.’”

“That was Friday. The WWE has seemingly done that for me more than any other group of humans on earth, so I appreciate the hell out of all of them over there,”

Transcription via Fightful

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• pat mcafee
• The Rock
• Smackdown
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