Pat McAfee Reveals Original Plans For His WWE Royal Rumble Return

After several months away from the company, Pat McAfee returned to WWE at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, joining Michael Cole and Corey Graves at the announce table for the show.

McAfee's return was kept a surprise and the former NFL punter revealed the original plan would have seen him compete in the Men's Royal Rumble Match.

The 35-year-old said on the Pat McAfee show:

"A lot of people thought I was going to be in the Royal Rumble, a lot of people thought that I was going to be there. That was not figured out until late last week. I mean, that really came together pretty quick. Not that there was any bad relations or anything, it's just my schedule for the last five months and everybody's schedule, especially in WWE...My wife's pregnant, with what the schedule was...There was no bad beef or anything. It was just like 'I don't want to have to train enough to go into that Royal [Rumble].'"

McAfee noted that he feels like he could have gotten in shape if he tried but he didn't want to disrespect anybody.

"I think I could have but I don't want to disrespect anybody. There's only so many spots and when you're in there, there's a lot of danger, there's a lot s**t that can happen. So I told them, I think maybe week 14, week 13 of the season, I'm like, 'Hey, just want to let you know, this season's been a grind this year with Gameday being an extra work day'...I told them, 'Hey, I'm not going to be able to be in good enough shape for Rumble, don't want to disrespect Royal Rumble or anything like that.' It was the goal, Royal Rumble was the goal, I wasn't able to keep up because of Gameday getting dropped in and what that schedule became."  

McAfee stepped away from WWE in September 2022 to work as a full-time analyst on ESPN College Gameday. McAfee was previously the colour commentator on SmackDown with Michael Cole. He has competed in multiple matches, most recently defeating Baron Corbin at SummerSlam 2022.

H/T to F4W Online