Pat McAfee To Take WWE Hiatus

McAfee is stepping away from SmackDown immediately.

by Andrew Pollard
Pat McAfee
WWE.com

For those who love nothing more than hearing the energetic, engaging, entertaining tones of Pat McAfee on Friday Night SmackDown, we're afraid we've got some bad news...

Having recently landed a new role on ESPN's College GameDay, McAfee has today revealed - on The Pat McAfee Show - that he'll be taking a hiatus from SmackDown action due to this new gig. The former NFL standout was sure to reiterate that he will be returning to his full-time WWE job, but that his new schedule means his SmackDown commentary spot will be put on hold for the foreseeable future.

McAfee has WWE's full blessing to work on College GameDay, with that show airing live on Saturday mornings throughout college football season. As noted by Pat, he did at one point push to do both SmackDown and College GameDay, but WWE deemed it better for his wellbeing to just focus on GameDay for now.

Advertisement

Pat will be in Austin, Texas this Saturday as the University of Texas take on the University of Alabama, so that means his WWE absence will be felt immediately.

Advertisement

As for who will replace Pat McAfee alongside Michael Cole on Friday nights for this next little while, that remains to be seen.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.