Pat McAfee has been away from WWE for more than a month as he seemingly stepped away from his role as a commentator for Raw.
The absence wasn’t explained in WWE, but McAfee went into detail as to why he’s not currently on the program anymore. On the July 16 edition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show,’ the sports media giant told Kirk Herbstreit that he was exhausted.
‘I got real tired, man,’ McAfee said, as he added that he hit a wall.
The former NFL punter explained he had been doing WWE shows − in addition to his podcast and ESPN duties − since August. He said he finally hit a wall when he arrived for Money in the Bank in June.
‘I could just feel it. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, my brain is not operating right now,” McAfee said. ‘I knew this moment was coming, like I knew it was gonna happen at some point.’
McAfee said he had talked to people about experiencing mental exhaustion as he was traveling several times a week. So, he stopped doing Raw on Monday nights to limit the travel, catching up on sleep in addition to being at home with his wife and daughter. He said he felt bad for taking a step back, but WWE has ‘been great’ about his decision and understood his reasons.
‘I will always love the WWE, and I miss it and but I’ll tell you what, I didn’t think I would have made it,’ he said.
McAfee also gave credit to those who have stepped in for him: Corey Graves on Raw and Wade Barrett for premium live events. The two are veteran commentators, but there was reshuffling within the announcing teams with McAfee, most notably Graves moving from the main roster to NXT, which infamously seemed to frustrate Graves.
‘Corey Graves, so good. Wade Barrett, so good,’ McAfee said.
When will Pat McAfee return to WWE?
It’s unclear when McAfee will step back into his role at WWE. He last appeared on the June 9 edition of Raw.
While it’s unknown when McAfee returns, he likely won’t appear for some time as the college football season starts in August and he will be focused on his ‘College GameDay’ duties. Last year, he announced weeks before the college football season he would step away from WWE ‘for a while.’ He was away from WWE for more than four months until the Netflix premier of Raw on Jan. 6.
Given the history, McAfee is likely to come back into WWE in January in the leadup to or at Royal Rumble.