For Pat McAfee, wrestling at WWE SummerSlam at Nissan Stadium was an incredible experience, though he says the match wasn’t the cleanest one he’s had.
At WWE SummerSlam, McAfee defeated Happy Corbin, someone who used to be his teammate during their early days as NFL players.
Speaking on the August 1 edition of The Pat McAfee Show, the SmackDown broadcaster discussed his match at the premium live event and stated that he could have trained better for it because he wasn’t prepared for the humidity.
“I did do the Swanton Bambini,” said McAfee. “I will say, I did not expect the ring posts to look the way they looked while I was climbing up there. Hey, there were some moments in that match that were really like, ‘Oh, should have prepared differently, should have prepared differently. For instance, just walking into the stadium, and I took a nice deep breath of that humid air, and it was thick. It was sauna thick down there because it was supposed to rain. Projections for the weather for like two weeks to a week out, even the morning of were like yeah, rain’s coming. And whenever it’s hot and rain’s coming, that means it’s humid as f—, and I didn’t even think about that as I was training in my basement in air- conditioning.
“So that immediately hit me day of. I’m walking in, and ‘Oh no, this is not in an arena, this is not in an enclosed arena. It’s gonna be hot as f— out here.’ As I’m walking around, I start sweating. I’m like, ‘I haven’t even done anything,’ and I am drenched. So started to hydrate earlier, started to hammer some waters and Gatorades. Definitely thought though, should have trained for this one. Should have went outside a little bit. We’ll learn for later. A little bush league on my part not to think about it being outside.”
He went on to describe how he slipped on the ropes, and while he had his doubts in the moment, it all worked out.
“A lot of my offense off the ropes and with the ropes, ropes are wet, obviously, a little slick, humid,” said McAfee. “The shoes I was wearing, had not worn them on ropes. So there’s a lot of things that as they were happening, I was thinking to myself, ‘F— idiot, bush league. You are so dumb.’ I go up for that base jump to catch f— Bum Ass Corbin off-guard, and I felt real good about that. As I was flying through the air, and then left foot on first, I felt like I had nothing under me, and I’m ‘Oh ho, oh ho, oh ho,’ luckily grab onto him like I’m a goddamned koala bear. Hang onto him, bruise up the shins on the ropes. As it was happening, they say you have so much adrenaline you don’t feel anything out there, that’s a lie. As my shins were bouncing on the ropes like ‘Oh god, it hurts so bad.’ So superplex happens obviously. I thought it was over there. Then he runs his dumb ass into the post, goes outside. I’m like wait a minute, wait a minute, I can f— go. That was, as I was climbing up there, I did not expect those ring posts to be there, but I’m already halfway up, 48,000 people in Nissan Stadium that were absolutely f—- electrifying.
“…I’m climbing up there, I’m like oh no, foot’s slipping a little on that second rope. Alright, shouldn’t be a problem. Then I get up onto that third rope, and I’m like oh no, I should have done a little bit more work getting these shoes on top of that thing. I think I was too Italian. I went too hard with the, ‘Hey, how ya doing, keep it moving,’ and it threw me off. I felt the gravy of the humidity running me down. Then once I caught just one little brief second it was out of nowhere on Corbin, hit that thing perfect. Hit that thing exactly how I wanted to hit it, felt good about it. Some people were tweeting me, giving me way too much credit. Did you see him make it appear as if he was off-balance so he could keep us all as the edge of our seat? That is what it’s all about. I will let you know, that is not the case. If you could have heard what was going on in between my ears when I was up there, oh, no. Immediate regret is the sound of what was talking in my brain. Happy the body was able to figure it out. If you see, I actually, next door rebalances on the rope a little bit further down, that could have been catastrophic. If there was any on that one, I mean you’re talking full split. So I’m very thankful for the ropes for making it happen up there.”
McAfee also recalled the Code Red he hit at the end of the match, noting that he had never hit one before, but it felt like the right time to do so. He also admitted that the contest “wasn’t the cleansest match” he’s had.
“[Charles Robinson] accidentally gets bumped from big dumb Bum Ass Corbin, I see him down, I apologize for this. I’m gonna take advantage, especially after what that scumbag did to me on Friday,” said McAfee. “I kick so hard in his sack, it felt so good. He drops to his knees, boom, code red. Not a destroyer by the way. Lot of people were saying that was a destroyer, not a destroyer. That was a code red. Had I ever done it before to anybody? Nope, but it felt like it was the right time, and that was the right place. It wasn’t the cleanest match I’ve ever had. I certainly wasn’t prepared for the humidity, as I should have been. But I’m pumped to get out of there with a dub.”
Looking back on the experience, McAfee called it a “surreal night” and thanked the fans. He also pointed out that he could potentially let bygones be bygones with Corbin.
“We haven’t talked since the match, so I have no idea what our next encounter’s gonna be,” said McAfee. “I’m a bygones be bygones kind of guy. We fought, we can move on. I don’t know how he is, especially with what he’s become in WWE. But certainly a couple moments in there, I’m looking around thinking to myself, this is f—- hysterical. The locker room I was in, the male locker room, was the visitor’s locker room that I’d been in numerous times before. The dry erase board that we used was in there, the same spot. Shower same spot, came out of the visitor’s tunnel when we walked out.
“So it was a very surreal evening, and I’m very thankful to everybody that made that happen, which is obviously the people at WWE but also the f— fans. You guys are the coolest people of all time. How loud it was, his electrifying it was, where we were in the evening with how hot it was out there, the fans brought the energy, woke me up, made me feel good, I appreciate the f—- hell out of all of you. It’s nice to be undefeated in sanctioned matches.”
It was a MAGICAL evening at SummerSlam in Nashville.. STILL undefeated in sanctioned matches#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/acV1m7yK31
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 1, 2022
