8 Things We Learned From Pat McAfee On Stephanie McMahon's WWE Show
2. He Told Triple H He’d “Hit The Indys”
After the drama over tuxedo shorts with Michael Cole at 'Mania 35, Pat got into a groove of appearing on more NXT panels and talking about WWE during his other media commitments. At home, Triple H told Stephanie that he’d like to use McAfee in a much bigger role on NXT programming. Interested, Pat had a chat with Hunter and said he planned to hit the independent circuit so he could find out if he had what it took to be a pro wrestler.
Trips told him not to do that, but to learn inside WWE rings instead.
'The Game' outright told the bubbly personality not to wrestle for anybody else, even small local promotions, to gain experience. That came as a slight surprise to Pat, because he figured he'd defo have to do some legwork elsewhere if he ever fancied wrestling on WWE TV. Hunter said he would have to show he belonged, but not by working the indy scene. That eventually led to McAfee's match at NXT TakeOver XXX vs. Adam Cole.
Stephanie’s Places didn’t mention Cole by name, presumably because he’s over in AEW. This kind of stuff kinda comes across as childish, being honest. There's a chance McAfee did talk about him but ESPN/WWE cut it out. It's their show, so they can do what they want, but it's hardly like talking about a match Adam Cole had on NXT in 2020 will suddenly swing the ratings in Tony Khan's favour.
Pat was stunned that WWE didn't want him to go out into the wider wrestling world and get some seasoning first.