"I think I stunk" - Pat McAfee on his WWE SmackDown debut, taking criticism from Vince McMahon
Pat McAfee thinks he stank in his WWE SmackDown commentary debut Friday night.
In WWE last week, there were many shakeups following WrestleMania 37, including the commentary teams for both RAW and SmackDown. The latter saw the debut of Pat McAfee as part of the blue brand's color commentary team alongside Michael Cole.
Speaking this morning on The Pat McAfee Show, McAfee spoke about how things went at SmackDown on Friday and admitted he needs to get better.
"There was no real sitdown like 'hey, you can expect this and this.' I had no clue what was going to happen all night. No clue. I do believe that is the plan going forward, to just keep me out of the blue. If so, I had an absolute blast. I do not think I was anywhere near what I can get to as a commentator for professional wrestling. I used a lot of words over and over. I was scared to have too much bass in my voice because I didn't want people to think I was trying to dominate the call, but sometimes I sounded too soft.
"The standing, my natural instinct, is to stand when something happens. I guess a lot of people didn't enjoy that. I appreciate that because that was potentially something that could get me into some shit. A lot of people say, 'you need to stay.' The clip of us coming back to the two-hot of me standing and [Michael Cole] sitting and my being caught in a situation where I'm like, 'I don't know if I should stand or sit right now. That was an ad-libbed moment that pops up and is incredible. I had a blast. I think I stunk, but I have a chance to get better. I enjoyed it and am very thankful to all the people in WWE and to anybody that tuned in."
Pat McAfee is open to criticism from Vince McMahon
Pat McAfee later revealed that Vince McMahon wasn't present at SmackDown last week. But he's open to criticism from McMahon and others who will help him improve and get better.
"Vince McMahon is somebody. If he were to say something to me, no matter how he says it... if you talked to me the way Vince McMahon talks to me, I'd smack you in the mouth, but it's f****** Vince McMahon. There's a lot of people at WWE to where if they have advice, they created that business, I'm going to listen to them. I have not changed and will not change, but I am very open if people give me critiques on what they think would be better."
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Thanks to Fightful for the transcription from the Pat McAfee Show.