Pat McAfee will be in action tonight at Backlash. He will take on the former World Heavyweight Champion Gunther in one of the five matches scheduled for the first Premium Live Event after WrestleMania 41.
McAfee and Gunther had a short-term feud that started on RAW after ‘Mania and continued for a couple of weeks, leading to a match at Backlash, which will be the RAW commentator’s first match in WWE since SummerSlam in August 2022.
WWE Will Not Replace Pat McAfee on Commentary For Backlash
McAfee works Premium Live Events as part of the commentary team along with Michael Cole and Wade Barrett, but things will be different this Saturday in St. Louis. WWE will not replace McAfee for the event, and the commentary team will be down to two people instead, Cole and Barrett.
The two commentators used to work together for a while before the arrival of Joe Tessitore. WWE then paired Cole with McAfee and Barrett with Tessitore for RAW and SmackDown, respectively.
It will be interesting to see whether Cole will get involved in McAfee’s match with The Ring General, as the former World Heavyweight Champion also assaulted the legendary WWE commentator on RAW after ‘Mania.
Pat McAfee Reveals Triple H’s Role In His First Feud in WWE
When McAfee joined WWE and attempted to become an in-ring competitor, he was unsure whether he had the ability to have a successful in-ring career and was thinking of moving to the independent circuit and leaving WWE to improve his wrestling skills.
It was WWE CCO Triple H who convinced him to stay and pursue an in-ring career in the company instead of moving to the indies. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go hit the indies and see if I can do this or not.’ He (Triple H) was like, ‘Don’t you even think about it. You need to be doing it with us if you’re going to do it at all. Let’s just figure out a good time for it,'” McAfee told Stephanie McMahon in the latest episode of “Stephanie’s Places” on ESPN+.
McAfee started a feud with Adam Cole on NXT shortly after, but has barely wrestled during his time with WWE, moving to a commentary role on RAW and Premium Live Events. His last in-ring appearance was against Baron Corbin nearly three years ago (SummerSlam 2022), while he has made appearances at other PLEs, like WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble.