Pat McAfee made his return to the premiere of Raw on Netflix on January 6, 2025, reuniting with Michael Cole. Since then, he has become a full-time commentator for the brand. As the WWE SmackDown tournament kicked off, American wrestler Randy Orton took shots at the former NFL punter. Well, McAfee didn’t hold back either.

While condemning sports analysts, Orton snappily highlighted McAfee’s WWE talent. Mocking Pat’s NFL career, he said, “WWE universe, listen to me. The entire world, listen to me, when I say. I am going to prove in short order that Pat McAfee is only the second-greatest punter in the WWE.” That was a brutal shot.

Well, WWE on Netflix posted a brief video clip featuring Orton’s remark directly from the WWE SmackDown, held in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They captioned it “Eager to hear your thoughts, @patmcafeeshow 🧐 #WWEonNetflix #SmackDown,” hence inviting reactions. McAfee gave a suitable reply to the “GOAT” wrestler. “I believe it,” he replied with 3-word message to Orton.

McAfee’s wrestling is passion is not new. Before starting his professional NFL career, Pat competed in a wrestling match against The WarPig at an IWA East Coast show in March 2009. He briefly trained as a professional wrestler in 2017 and now works as a commentator for WWE.

Surprisingly, Randy 44’s adoration for McAfee’s WWE strength came after NFL sports analysts made headlines to boycott the NFL draft.

Pat McAfee decides to boycott the NFL draft

Back on Thursday, the sports personality disclosed the reason to boycott the annual ‘Draft Spectacular’ show in Green Bay. During the Pat McAfee Show, he explained the reason. The reason behind the boycott was his long-standing grievances with the NFL’s disregard.

“I do appreciate that becoming a massive story on the internet,” ESPN analyst stated. Pat McAfee also explained the solid reason. “Because I was just kinda telling our people. ‘Hey, we’re not going.’ And then I’m being very transparent about the reason why. It’s not just the insufficient respect – which I’ve never said in my life – at the combine,” the former Colts’ kickoff specialist asserted.

McAfee didn’t stop there. Pointing out that he paid the NFL over $4 million for the right to air game highlights, he said, “It’s basically the overall relationship. People don’t know, I have paid the NFL millions and millions of dollars for years so that I can get rights and social media rights and digital rights for highlights and plays for our show.” After what he called a frustrating experience with “middle managers” at the Scouting Combine, he’s pulling the plug on his show’s trip to the NFL Draft in Green Bay. Instead, he and his crew will stay in their Indianapolis “Thunderdome” studio.

Apart from this, sports analysts also reiterated that he “had a business partnership with the NFL, both through the NFL Films and the NFL for years and years and years. But nobody has told these middle managers, ‘Hey, just cause he’s younger than you and you think he’s a (expletive) doesn’t mean…’ Combine was the most ridiculous,” he added.

“But it’s not just the combine. It is a totality of this thing. So I don’t appreciate it being reported as ‘insufficient respect at the combine.’ He expressed frustration that the issue is being framed, circumscribing the combine, according to him, it has become a part of the ongoing disrespect across the entire process that also includes the draft.

McAfee also doubled down by showing slides of him measuring spaces at Lucas Oil Stadium, hinting that the setup was a mess. Last year, his show drew a huge audience at the Detroit draft. Green Bay would have been bigger, given Hawk’s legacy with the Packers. But now the team has decided to stay in Indianapolis. It’s clear that McAfee is hurt. Well, we can’t blame him.