Pat McAfee made his WrestleMania debut on Sunday, taking on Austin Theory in singles competition.
McAfee has previously wrestled Adam Cole in singles competition and competed inside WarGames, but this marked his first match on the main roster. McAfee defeated Theory, but was then defeated by Vince McMahon.
"Last night was a dream come true. Last night was the time of my life. Last night...I should have been undefeated at WrestleMania, but I got bamboozled. There was no way that was a sanctioned match. I'm undefeated at WrestleMania," McAfee said on his show when reflecting on WrestleMania 38.
Breaking character a bit, McAfee did have kind words for Theory, saying, "Absolutely thankful for everybody and everything. Austin Theory, he's a good kid. He's on his way. I was very fortunate to be in there. There was some cool stuff that took place at WrestleMania. Shoutout to everybody on the internet that gave me a lot of love. I can't thank you enough. It was a fucking dream and you guys are the best."
McAfee entered the arena to "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, which is the song he uses when introduced to the live crowd at WWE SmackDown.
Speaking about his entrance, McAfee said, "'What am I supposed to do here,' is what I started thinking when I walked out for that entrance. The fuckin Cowboys cheerleaders were out there, didn't know that happening. That's awesome. By the way, thank you to Jack White, shoutout to White Stripes letting that one play. Shoutout to WWE for also making that happen. As soon as I walked out there, I looked around like, 'Holy fuck.' In my mind, I've done my wrestling entrance and come through the curtain in my head, you think about this moment forever and when I'm walking out I'm like, 'what the fuck am I supposed to do with my hands?' I don't think I thought enough about all this."
McAfee then discussed his relationship with WWE seamstress Terry Anderson and how she always tries to break his hands with fistbumps. McAfee relied on Terry to create his WrestleMania gear.
"Me and Ms. Terry have always talked about all the cool shit she made and I've done like, 'Maybe one day I'll get my shit made by you.' She's like, 'Aw, I'd love that.' WrestleMania weekend, I had not thought about what I'm wearing. I'm just gonna walk out there in black pants and a tank top. I start looking around at everybody else when I got there, when I arrived on Saturday, Logan Paul was in one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life and I thought, 'I'm putting on a tank top and black pants.' Somebody else had a full parade float around them. I walked to Ms. Terry and I was like, 'I need a WrestleMania vibe.' 'I got you.' She glued that shit on by hand damn near 24 hours beforehand. We had a cool moment like, 'I appreciate you.' WrestleMania, not just the match, getting stunned...hilarious. I didn't know that was happening. That whole thing, I didn't know that was happening. I was chugging a couple of beers. Had beer in my eyes and my ears. It was so stupid, so dumb, and I'm so thankful, and that last match didn't happen," he said.
McAfee said the crowd was hot for the post-match as they anticipated Vince getting in the ring. Vince, who sat ringside for the match, took his jacket off to reveal his tank top.
McAfee said about Vince, "He had a black tank top on. I told him, 'there's still 86-year-old bones underneath all that.'"
Ahead of WrestleMania, McAfee revealed a 3 a.m. text he got from Vince doing squats.
After losing to McMahon, Steve Austin came out and delivered stunners to everyone, including McAfee, who didn't know it was going to happen.
"I was sitting there just befuddled by everything going on in my life right there. I'm not good enough in that business for everything that happened. There was a lot of trust that was placed upon me, hindsight, that should not have been. I'm in there like, 'I should have been given a heads up.' I've done this three times. Looking back on it, they were really confident in me figuring stuff out," he said.
Before the match, Michael Cole told McAfee, "that this was one of the first matches in a long time that he was super excited for."
McAfee noted that he didn't make his show on Monday due to delays and that he was hungover after all the beer he drank on and off-screen.
If you missed anything from WrestleMania Sunday, checking out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
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