Pat McAfee made his return to WWE last week, aligning himself with Randy Orton and immediately making bold statements about the current state of pro wrestling. He took shots at Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, low ticket sales, and the focus on smaller wrestlers working long matches instead of emphasizing larger-than-life stars like Orton.
Matt Hardy discussed the promo on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast and said McAfee was targeting AEW due to the style of long matches involving smaller, athletic wrestlers, and added that he felt the criticism was valid.
“I 100% (think) it was a shot at AEW. He put the veil over it and just said, ‘Oh, blah, blah, blah. I turned this on, and this is what I see. Pro wrestling is going to sh*t now. It’s not Attitude Era.’ No, I know I did (say WWE), but I think it was a valid shot at AEW. I think a lot of that was like, they’re saying wrestling is different now and not what it’s supposed to be, Attitude Era-esque. I think a lot of that was related to AEW. That was kind of the underlying narrative.”
Hardy went on to say that Travis Scott’s alliance with John Cena was very different compared to the pairing of McAfee and Orton.
“McAfee does know wrestling, and he knows it really well because he’s a longtime fan who has followed and supported it his whole life, and he has also worked in the company. He understands the inner workings to a degree, but unlike a typical celebrity, he feels more like a WWE personality.
WWE is more like his home than anything else. It doesn’t feel like an outside celebrity coming in. He’s been on commentary for a long time and is a well-established WWE character. So yeah, they didn’t just bring him in off the streets. He’s a fully established WWE personality, and they gave him something very interesting.
He was saying that, you know, all these smaller guys out there flipping around, the style has changed. 5’5 guys having long matches, Ironman matches, and then you have 6’5 Randy Orton, the Legend Killer, the real deal. This is what wrestling is supposed to feel like. We’re missing that Attitude Era feel.
There were a lot of things in there that were pretty compelling. And I think this was aimed more at the smarter audience, because while they continue to grow, they’re also the most vocal.”
