Michael Chandler made a surprise appearance at this week’s WWE RAW, where he called out Conor McGregor for a match.
Speaking during the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the UFC fighter spoke more about how the moment came together, and how he inadvertently hurt himself while cutting the promo.
“I literally injured my voice on Monday Night Raw,” Chandler said (transcript via Fightful). “Before I went on, one of the producers was like, ‘Hey, this microphone, it’s gated.’ ‘What does that mean?’ ‘It means you have to speak up.’ ‘I don’t think that will be a problem. The moment took over and a star was born. It was planned. I was going to be at Raw. Obviously, TKO Group, UFC, WWE, all one big happy family. This was the first time they were intermingling the UFC crowd with WWE crowd, bring in some fighters. They put me down in the front row and I took matters into my own hands.”
Magic happened
Chandler went on to say that the moment came together in the spur of the moment, as Chandler was originally supposed to just be on camera before mentioning that he should maybe get on the mic, too.
“Two minutes before, they said they were going to put the camera on me,” said Chandler. “I said, ‘Why don’t you give me the microphone?’ ‘Hold on, let me run it up the flag pole.’ About a minute later, ‘You’re going on and you’ll get the microphone if you want it.’ Magic happened. There was nothing prepared. I was thrown into the fire. Smacked myself a couple of times, and we went.”
As for whether or not Chandler will continue appearing on future shows, or even at WrestleMania 40, Chandler said there could be more, but he isn’t ready to confirm anything.
“As you know, there are little hints being dropped everywhere,” Chandler said. “That was definitely coincidental. I had a meeting with Triple H after, we chopped it up, I paid my respects. I grew up watching Triple H. We had a nice little talk. I would love to head out to Philly in April. We’ll see what happens.”