The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 045 - Rex Ryan, Michael Cole, & A HUGE Life Announcement

Episode Date: February 7, 2019

Today’s episode is loaded with two incredible conversations. First, one of the most charismatic guys out there, former Head Coach of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills and current ESPN analyst, Rex Ryan, joins the show. He and Pat talk about his defensive philosophy, what he thinks of the defenses playing in the NFL right now, whether or not he’s gotten the itch yet to get back into coaching, how being in the media is different than being a coach, his career as an actor, and he elaborates on the shots he took at Cody Parkey (4:43-21:35). Next, arguably the greatest play-by-play announcer in the world, one of the most accomplished men in the industry, the voice of the WWE, Michael Cole, joins the show for an in depth conversation. He and Pat discuss the big news that Pat has coming up, Michael recounts a career that has spanned from covering political campaigns, to covering the siege in Waco, to civil wars, and ultimately to finding his way working for the WWE. He also recounts some different stories about his career in wrestling and gives a little closer look inside the industry, and how he’s found himself in the position he’s in. The guys also get involved in another edition of, “The room wants to know,” as they fire some rapid fire questions at Michael (24:02-1:21:28). Pat also gives everybody an idea of what to expect from the show next week with him on vacation, and has another great giveaway opportunity to close the show. It’s a really fun one. Come and laugh with us, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A couple of huge interviews coming up today. Rex Ryan sat down with us during Super Bowl week, and we chatted about Rex that only Rex can chat about. Football, life, his transition to TV. He is an electric factory. Rex Ryan. I love

everything about him. And then we dive deep and go behind the scenes of the WWE with a guy who's been there for 22 years. The voice of the WWE, Michael Cole gives who's been there for 22 years the voice of the wwe michael cole gives us a behind the scenes look at how the wwe operates his life as a political journalist before he got into the wwe covering waco which was a cult that lit their shit on fire i mean it's it was a 50 minute conversation that dove into some incredible topics you're going to enjoy the hell out of it

and we're so lucky that you choose to listen every single Tuesday and Thursday. I honestly can't thank you enough. There's so many things happening in my life. And I noticed this while talking to Michael Cole. You'll hear it later. I'm the luckiest dude on earth. And if it wasn't for you guys listening

and for you listening to everything we got going on here, none of this would be happening. So thank you so much. Next week, we will be on vacation. But Ty Schmidt is putting together a couple best of episodes of throwback episodes, way back episodes, basically your favorite parts of our show, right? Correct. Yep. And there's a lot of people that might not have heard a lot of these things because we've gained a lot of new listeners. So we're going to take it back. It's going to be Ty's picks basically next week, Tuesday, Thursday,

you'll enjoy the hell out of that. And then we're back that following week with some heat for St. Paddy's Day. Whole new interviews, whole new everything. So we're going to take a week off. I'm going to go to Hawaii. A couple boys are going to Mexico. Miami. We're going to go hit the refresh, reset,

re... Recharge. Recharge button. Hey, I knew we'd get there. It's going to be a great week. We're thankful for you. And Ty's going to put together some incredible shows. So Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday, Heartland Radio 2.0. We'll still be on schedule.

It'll just be best ofs, which probably be better than normal episodes. They might be, yeah. Well, Ty's brain's a lot better than ours. So let's assume if Ty's putting together, it's going to be great. And we couldn't do any of this without our friends at SeatGeek. SeatGeek is the greatest ticket-buying app on planet Earth because they scan all the other ticket-buying apps, and they find you the most bang for your buck.

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and it won't affect your current credit. That's Upstart.com slash Heartland. Ladies and gentlemen, Rex Ryan. Ryan. Ryan. You get it. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's been a head coach

for the Buffalo Bills. He's been a head coach for the New York Jets. He's been a defensive coordinator all around the world. He's a legend. He's an ESPN personality. He's a guy that I enjoy immensely and can't wait to chat to. Ladies and gentlemen, Rex Ryan. How you guys doing? I like the setup here. You got a little heat going. Man, I mean, Atlanta is this cold. Rex, I'll tell you what. We had no heat yesterday up here while we were setting this up for the first time. Cold as balls. Did not expect it in freezing. Rex, I'll tell you what. We had no heat yesterday up here while we were setting this up for the first time. Cold as balls.

Did not expect it in Atlanta. There's zero southern hospitality from Mother Nature, but we've got to move forward. I have a question for you. What is your football philosophy? Every time I hear you talk about football on ESPN and all your interviews, it's like it's a game that's physical but a lot of fucking fun, I believe, is what you try to pitch, basically. Pretty much. And it's funny because

i was reading the other day um a guy that worked uh was a secondary coach for me uh just got the bear stevens coordinating job uh chuck pagano and he said it's my guy we got you know kill philosophy i go dude you flat stole that you stole that that's exactly right and but that that's kind of it because you know that kiss philosophy that that was for somebody else right. But that's kind of it because you know that KISS philosophy. That was for somebody else. But to me it's the, you know, but that's really what it is. And get after it. Enjoy it.

And yeah, it is. It's a physical brand of football. You know, I grew up, my dad always said that a big hit would change the momentum of a game faster than anything. And it's true. It's whether your punter's running down the field smashing somebody or whatever.

Let's go. Let's go. But it's the truth. And I think that's the way the game's still played. And I know, look, there's a lot of different rules, all that stuff. You can't take somebody's head off anymore, but you can still be physical. And I think, for the most part, the most physical team wins. Are you trying to get back into coaching?

There's been a lot of rumors that you're getting back. I talked to Chuck last week, right? I was very lucky to play for Chuck, watch him go through leukemia. He's just an incredible human. I think he looks up to you a lot, too. So he's a great guy. But talking to him, he said he knew like a week out of coaching that he wanted to get back into it. After he left the Colts, it was like a

week where him and Tina, they were getting a little antsy. He was around the wife too much. She was getting sick of it. He said, I need to get back with the team. Now he's with the Bears. Are you kind of feeling that same way? Or is the media helping you a little bit? No, it helps me a little bit. I have a son that's coaching with the Chargers, so I get my fix that way. My brother just got

back in with the Redskins, so that helps, but there's no scoreboard in what I do right now. And it's tough when you've been competing all your life. And, you know, 30 years I spent as a coach. So, yeah, you definitely miss the locker room. You miss, you know, the competition. And, you know, so that, yeah, I definitely miss it. And I was tempted to come back in.

But for whatever reason, nobody called me. I guess I'm unlisted. I don't know what it is, man. Chief swimmers weren't real. No, that was what was so funny. Like, I get a lot of them. I even had one about college or, you know, something like, oh, he's interested. He wants a job at Miami. I'm like, what?

No, I'll take the dolphin job. I wasn't going to go to the Hurricanes. If Ray Lewis and Ed Reed were playing, maybe I would. But, yeah, you know, so to me, I got a pretty good gig right here. And you do well, by the way. You do really well. I feel like whenever you were doing your press conferences, you kind of, I mean, you teabagged the entire league when you came in.

You became instantly the most entertaining human in the NFL. You became a face almost at the NFL. For most. Well, not these Patriots fans. Must see TV, though, anytime you got in front of a microphone. So I imagine ESPN is very excited to have you. Have you felt comfortable in it? Is there a learning curve to being a TV guy?

I think there was a learning curve. When I first went in there, I'm like, ah, shoot. I never wanted to do it. I wanted to coach. You know what I mean? So I'm like, ah, shoot. I never wanted to do it. I wanted to coach. You know what I mean? So I'm like, ah, hell, I'll go do this. That was a disaster on Monday Night Football. Whatever.

I'm watching the game like, oh, yeah. Who's going to tee me up here? I don't want to end up the play-by-play or whatever. Jim Nance does a phenomenal job that way. He lets Tony Romo go, and I'm like, God. And Romo's a zillion times better than me. But it was like, God, that would have been nice. He's maybe not a zillion, maybe a billion times.

But it was, you know, and it was funny because I'm like, well, do I say something? Because I'm used to being the lead guy. Like when they come in, it's, you know, a press conference, the mics are there, and I'm like, well, do I say something? Because I'm used to being the lead guy. When they come in, it's a press conference, the mics are there, and I'm the guy speaking. So over there, it's like, okay, sit back, sit back. Okay, sit back, sit back. I missed an opportunity. I screwed up.

I'm not great with the language anyway. Let's face it, I wasn't exactly a 5-8 at Kappa. That was my mother. But so it's just one of those deals. And it did take a little time. I'm much more comfortable now. Well, you were also a movie star. I mean, we can't forget about this.

That's my boy. Absolutely. That's my boy. Was that easier than TV? Wait, you're an actor? I didn't know you were an actor. Oh, an actor. Please.

A pastry fanatic. You know, yeah, I think I dominated that movie. And I was in there you know i mean it was they had another guy uh what adam sandler yeah he's like the co-star but he's a musician yeah i thought i was the guy that carried that show oh yeah it's you and dan patrick the whole movie really that yeah you know but that was so funny i get a call from adam sandler, and he's like, Hey, Rex, is Adam Sandler? I'm like, yeah, right. Quick.

Hey, hey. That ain't no Adam Sandler. How did this fucking guy get my number? You know what I mean? And then all of a sudden, he calls back. No, it is. I'm like, because would you be interested in a movie? Oh, let me think about it.

Yeah, hell yeah. Let's do this. So that was a cool thing. Did you take acting classes, or you just wanted a natural? Let's go. Dude, let's do this. So that was a cool thing. Did you take acting classes or you just wanted a natural? Let's go. Dude, let's just go. And what got me, though, is they gave me the script, and so I studied my lines.

I wasn't going to be the guy that was going to screw the thing up. Your first time, you can't be that guy. No, and so I'm doing it. I'm just stiff, robotic. You can see that I'm trying to remember the lines. But the funny thing is Adam Sandler is just letting it rip. I'm like, whoa, whoa, you're see that I'm trying to remember the lines. But the funny thing is, Adam Sandler's just letting it rip. I'm like, whoa, whoa, you're supposed to say this. That's not all you said.

You know what I mean? That's not the way this goes. But it was fun as heck. Oh, look at that with heck right there. You just did it. Dude, I got to, man. I can't, you know, I'm trained now. No, but I'm saying that's natural.

That's a natural reaction for you. I can't do what I used to do with coaching. If you get back into coaching. Oh, I'm going right back to him. F-bombs, all that stuff. Let's let it rip. When you're watching a game, do you still call plays in your head or think about how you would stop certain things that are going on in a game?

Oh, no question. Yeah, it's just that part of it never leaves you. And, you know, some of these defenses that are played today, I'm like, this is a joke. Like, who the hell is calling these things? Can you name names? Yeah, almost every team in the league. Like, it's like nobody's playing defense anymore.

Keith Butler. You know, but it's like I watch it. You know, like New England, the thing I respect and admire about Belichick is, look, every game's different. It's its own. It's its own game. You're going to attack people a certain way. His teams are multiple.

They do different things. And by the way, brains still help you win. You have tough, smart guys, and you win with those guys. And if you're going to do – I always love this one. Well, we're going to play fast on defense. In other words, you're not going to coach. You're going to sit back and I'm going to put up my four defenses and just yell on the field.

I love these colleges watching them. Guy, I'm coaching his butt off. It's like you're coaching your butt off. You're yelling and screaming and have no clue. You're not getting your guys in position where they can be successful. And it's just like, you know, people, we're going to play fast. Well, do that to the Patriots. You want to play fast?

Watch how fast their offense goes through you. And these last two weeks were a great example of it. It's like, really? Oh, you're going to play these defenses? Oh. I was just like, stop. Because I picked both teams. The charge of my son coach is there.

So I picked them and I picked the Chiefs. I'm like, surely to God they'll know how to play him and all that. And by halftime, I'm like, this is a joke. Do you send your son a text at halftime like, hey, we need to make adjustments here? Hey, what the fuck are we doing? We're not just playing fast here. He's coaching on offense. So it was like, yeah, I was, you know,

and I predicted an all-L.A. Super Bowl. So I'm like, I'm feeling pretty good. The Chargers come in, the Patriots. We can say what we want. This is the greatest coaching job in Bill Belichick's career because that team is not even close to the team that I had to go against. I want to talk about that. Whenever you became a head coach, both times in the AFC East, I mean, you're being thrown into a buzzsaw here.

Probably the, not probably, the greatest dynasty in the history of the NFL probably won't see this for a long, long, long time. You went in there, though, with some, like you went in there, I'm not kissing the ring, awesome shit, right? What you have to tell your team, you have to sell it. If you were to be, do you think if you go back in time, you would have tried to get a head coaching job outside of the Patriots division and maybe have a run?

Because it's one of those things where they had it. It was a stranglehold right now, not on just AFC East, but the entire NFL. Do you think, like, I want to be a head coach again? Do you want to be a coordinator? What is the future? Well, no, I mean, you would take a head coaching job anywhere. So if you had to go coach in Alaska and I had to show up naked to coach, I'd do it.

It wouldn't be good for the league, but I would do it. I would absolutely do it. But that's it. I love the game. I want to be, I love being the head coach, but as a defensive coordinator,

it was great, but you had half the roster that you dealt with. But as a head coach, man, that's your football team out there. And, you know, when you talk about when I went to the Jets, it was like, hey, I'm going to show you, I'm going to show the whole league what they've been missing for all these years that they passed me over. And so that was like, hell, I'm, you know, I'm here and I'm not afraid of you. And I'm still

not afraid. You know, I'd walk in there with a high school team and still think I could kick somebody's butt. Hey, early in your Jets career with Sanchez there, you guys put together some incredible runs, like team football, though. That was like a team. I know for like a six-round trade. Yeah, and we suspended for six weeks immediately. So that was a hell of a trade. But that was a good move.

We're like, oh, shoot. As a Steelers guy, I remember on Hard Knocks, we got this guy for a six-rounder. Oh, yeah. He's the best player on the field. He's unbelievable. He's so good, so talented. And then we had Braylon Edwards that ended up punching LeBron's friend

or something like that, so got him at the right price. So I want to encourage other guys to beat up Legends friends or something. But really, it was, you know, but they're good dudes, man. And they played hard. And that was the thing. I remember one year we also had Plexico Burrus coming off. And so I had those three guys. So every Thursday, I'd meet with those three.

And we'd go and we'd have a little ice cream social and all that. And we'd just shoot the ball for about two. Oh, I learned so much. We learned a lot about each other. And all three of us, well, all four of us would agree that we're all screwed up. But, you know, I enjoy those guys. Man, they would do anything for me and, you know, vice versa. Well, I think we heard this in Detroit earlier this year

is that Patricia lost the locker room. And then you hear this, lost the locker room. That normally means that the OGs aren't fucking with the coach anymore. That's normally what it means. The locker room, the OGs are kind of done with the coach. There's either the coach hates the OGs, or that's kind of how the locker room gets lost. Your team was never like that.

Everybody was ready to go to war for Rex Ryan. I mean, just like Chuck Pagano, right? Chuck, you will never hear a player from the Colts that are like, I didn't like Chuck. Like we were ready to go for Chuck. We wish we won more for him. That's like probably the ultimate compliment, right? As a coach is that your players want to run through a wall for you. Yeah, well, that's it. And you know what? And as you know, it's because you establish a relationship and you care. You're genuine about caring for those guys. And that was it. And I cared for every one of my players.

Look, there are some times I hated them, but I hate my son sometimes. So it's, you know, and they'll make mistakes. Nobody's perfect by any stretch, and certainly not me. But it was something that these are special, special guys that play this game. And to me, it's, you know, look, football's not for everybody. You know, all these sissies are putting their kids in different sports. That's on them. Yep.

And you know what? Their kids are going to be punks anyway. So to me, that's what it's about. Oh, I'm not going to have my kid play. Of course you're not. You know, we don't want your kid playing anyway. Bad for the game if your kid plays. Flag football, look, it ain't for everybody.

But the guys that do play the game, they're mighty, mighty men, and I love them. All right, wrapping this up. You won on ESPN where you work on a morning show, okay? Right after a situation happened in a Chicago Bear football game. And you say, basically, in other words, fuck them, Dakota Park. And that caused quite a scene in the brand community here for kickers. Yeah, I understand. I was asked by 2,000 people.

You're a tough guy, too, so I don't want to bite you. No, no. Hold on, no. But I got this, Mike this Mike no but I was getting tweet I got like 2,000 tweets like yo did you hear what Rex Ryan said about Cody Parkey this morning and I like watched it and I was like man that guy's got literally no soul in there I was like how can I feel bad for the kid but he has a job to do is what you were basically implied absolutely it's a 40-year field goal that I mean NFL everybody works their off. How about the corner that had to play man coverage all day long?

How about this guy, that guy, the coach that put the game plan together? You put your team in a situation to win those games. Look, we had a kicker, a folk hero. Literally. Yeah, it was like a 35-yarder on the right hash. But still, he got it done. And it was great because it was dead silent in the stadium. And he nails it.

And you hear him going, yes, him and me. Yes. You know, it's a big mate, Manny. Hey, we called a timeout. We called a timeout. It was like. Oh, my God. That was by the grace of God.

Dumbest thing we've ever done. Thank you. Thank you very much. Because now I'm going to throw the ball to Braylon. Braylon Edwards on the corner. Situation which we didn't have called at the time. But it was so funny, because when you bring it up, it's like, when we got that, I'm like. You should have seen what we were doing on the sideline.

You're kidding me. Me, Vinatieri, I think Peyton, everybody was like, yo, what the fuck were we doing? Exactly. Because it would have been a 50, I think it would have been like a 53 or something like that. And so now your play's a job. I'm like, guys, they think we're just going to run the ball here. I got Braylon one-on-one over here. Son of a bitch.

And I look at Sanchez. What do you think? He goes, oh, yeah. I'm like, give it to him. Let's go. I don't care what the play. You know, I write Z cross. But throw the ball to Braylon.

That was the technical terms we used. And he makes a great catch. Sanchez puts it on him and then the rest is history. But yeah, that was... Jim Caldwell's a dang good coach, but I was like, thank you, Jim. There was a time management guy on the staff at that time. I think

he was the one that told Jim to give the time out. That guy... Thank you! Thank you! I won't put that guy's name out there because he's probably looking for work still at this point. Yeah, absolutely. But he got fucking buried in the locker room afterwards. Oh man, that guy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I won't put that guy's name out there because he's probably looking for work still at this point. Yeah, absolutely. But he got fucking buried in the locker room afterwards. Oh, man, I bet. Because we had a lot of older guys on the team that were like.

Yeah, the team's ready to win. Yes. Anytime. Here's the thing. If Peyton Manning's your quarterback, you're going to win. I mean, this just in, you're going to win. And that's what's so funny where you look at all these teams and this guy's a great coach.

This dude's got Peyton Manning. This dude's got Aaron Rodgers. Hey, go out there and win with Geno Smith as a rookie and you tell me what's going on. Rex, we've got to get you on the driving range here. So thankful for you coming. You're awesome on TV. My pleasure, guys.

I'm very thankful for you coming here. And I can't wait to see you coach again because the NFL needs you up there, man. I honestly believe that. You see what they're paying these dudes now? Fuck. Like, oh, do you want to coach again? Yeah. Hell yeah, I do.

Gruden just banked 100 mil. 100 mil, 10-year deal. You know, so you're sitting back. It's guaranteed. It's like, you know what? Oh, we lost. We'll get them next time. I'll tell you what, you know what? We lost. We'll get him next time.

I'll tell you what, man. He said the Khalil Mack 90 mil is a lot of money, like a month after signing that $100 million deal. It's like zero self-awareness from the incredibly wealthy fucking guy that just came out of the booth. And Gruden, by the way, this dude could rush the passer. You, not so much.

You know, so like, oh my God. Rex, thank you so much. You know, so, like, oh, my God. Rex, thank you so much. You're the man. My pleasure, guys. Appreciate it. The fact that he saved himself by saying heck in, like, darn there, I think he said, incredible move by him.

Well, and I'm so used to, like, hard knocks was what made him so popular, and he got so popular because he said fuck, like, every other word. So I was very, very impressed that he's been trained to just basically eliminate that from his vocabulary. His brain putting the brakes on that is incredible because there's an obstacle course happening in your head whenever you're a known swearer and then you have to go on something, which, by the way, WWE, yeah, we're about to just dive into that

with my new boss, Michael Cole. But before we get there, huge shout out to Rex Ryan, by the way. Yeah, that was awesome. He hung out for like two hours, too. Didn't want to leave, he said. Yep. Good guy. I hope he gets back into coaching.

The game needs him. Or I hope he gets on TV more because the world needs more of Rex Ryan. I love that Dollar Shave Club has everything I need to look, feel, and smell my best. What I love even more is the fact that I never have to go to a store. That's because, one, DSC. You down with DSC? Yeah, you know me. DSC delivers everything I never have to go to a store. That's because one, DSC. You down with DSC? Yeah, you know me. DSC delivers everything I need right to my door.

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Shout out to America, too. Shout out to a lot of things. Shout out to Michael Cole for this interview we're about to do with him. It was a good one. Joining us now is a man who's my boss, a man who's covered cults in Texas, he's covered political campaigns and now every single monday night for the last 25 years he's the esteemed voice of the wwe ladies and gentlemen the handsome

clever witty michael cole michael cole uh that may be the best introduction i've ever received well see that's what i try to do you know i'm a put somebody over type of guy i like everybody Michael Cole. That may have been the best introduction I've ever received. Well, see, that's what I try to do. You know, I'm a put-somebody-over type of guy. I like everybody to look good, Mr. Cole. I love it. So first off, the fact that you even have me on this podcast is... Oh, hang on a second. You know what's going off right now?

Hang on. Hang on, guys. I'm excited to hear it. That's the alarm that I set to call you all to be on this podcast today. See, but you were on time. We were late. Here we are. I am so thankful you came on here.

I've been asking you to come on my show literally since we started working together. You said, as soon as you sign a contract, I'll come on the show. That happened. Here you are. You're a man of your word. So, listen. A, I don't do this often. Very rarely, indeed.

If you go back over my years of doing WWE, I rarely do interviews. That's the first thing. The second thing is I told you I would do this for you, so I'm doing it for you. And thirdly, and most importantly, since you stole my thunder a few weeks back and told the world that you had signed with WWE,

which you don't understand. When you told everyone you had signed with us, which, by the way, you hadn't. You hadn't inked any contract. My phone blew up. It was like a disaster, and it was like on a Monday, like for Monday Night Raw, or we were taping Raw for Christmas or something,

and my phone went insane. So I had to call you up and say, what are you doing? You're not even signed with the company yet. Well, and I told you, I had a throwaway line in one of my podcasts. I didn't even think it was that big of a deal. I was going into Lambeau to call Color Commentator Game for the NFL for the first time. And I said said also, the WWE has officially offered me a multi-year deal too. Everything's like going up and up for me. And then that obviously was heard by some people, which I did not expect. And then literally everything I do is headline news. I didn't know we were at that point and it started happening.

And I apologize for the battle you had to go through over there with the PR squad. Well, nonetheless, as of February 1st, Pat McAfee is officially a contributor with WWE. Hey! Yeah! Look at me, man. Look at me. This is actually a – it was an incredible 2018, if you remember, Pat.

I mean, you and I met on a telephone call, and a few weeks later you were doing an NXT TakeOver, and for some reason, I still can't figure out today, but for some reason you impressed people. And you started doing a few more months of stuff for us, and the next thing you know you're now a regular contributor to WWE, and 2019 is going to be incredible, and I can't wait. stuff for us and the next thing you know you're now a a regular contributor to wwe and the 2019 is going to be incredible and i can't wait i mean i'm i'm really excited to have you a part of

of our team and i cannot wait to see what uh what the future holds for for us well i am so thankful for you uh whenever i was in the nfl and leaving the nfl nobody would put me on their network nobody would put me on tv so whenever I got a call from you one day it was before Wrestlemania I got a call and I answered it was a random number I answer it and I go hello you know I have no clue what it is and uh is this Pat yeah yeah this is Michael Cole and I was like Michael get the fuck out of here Michael Cole calling me right now and it was a he was like no no for real how How did that all happen? Were you a big-time follower of mine on Twitter? You seem like my demographic right in there.

First of all, the fact that I don't use social media. I follow it somewhat every once in a while. I'll be honest with you. I knew Pat McAfee from the NFL. I'm a big NFL fan, a huge New York Jets fan. Had season tickets for years and years and years with my dad. So I follow football regularly. And I'd always been intrigued by Pat McAfee.

You know, some of the positive and negative things in your life over the years. Sort of a, you know, it was always, you know, it was always this, you know, cool thing. But obviously we never knew each other. And then you just happened to come to a live event for NXT and do a little bit of a thing with Adam Cole, and people reported back to me and they said, Oh my God, this guy is entertaining. He's a hoot. He loves the business.

I sat down with Triple H, Paul Levesque, who obviously NXT is his brainchild, and he said, what do you think of Pat? We're looking to do something different with our kickoff shows. And I said, damn, let's give him a try. And we threw you on air not knowing what to expect. I thought we were going to get kicked off TV. But it went great, and here we are today. And, you know, the future is bright.

It's not just going to be kickoff shows anymore for you. You've got a lot of stuff coming down the pipe, I hope. Well, I am very thankful and excited for that. I have been a WWE fan my entire life. Michael Cole is a constant with the WWE for the last two and a half decades was your plan always to be the voice of the wwe we were doing some research on you you covered the waco cult thing in texas for 51 days with cbs you're on a political campaign trail you went to syracuse how did you end up with the WWE? Like, I'm very interested. Because now you got me a job.

You've taken care of a lot of people. You're a good man with the WWE. It seems as if, though, you didn't know that that was going to be your life. Am I correct with that? No, not at all. So, listen, WWE or WWF back in the day has always been a part of my life. I mean, as a young kid, uh, growing up, my grandmother used to watch. So, uh, you know, I watched with her, um,

got away from it in high school, went to college, got back into it because when I was in college, WrestleMania was just beginning. And me and my buddies would go, you know, watch it on closed circuit in theaters in Syracuse. And one of the guys that was a couple of years ahead of me in my class, Craig DeGeorge, did some work with WWF. So we used to go backstage and hang out with him a little bit. So it had always been part of my life, but it was never in a million years that I ever think I was going to be working here. My dream was, A, to be a sportscaster,

which is the reason I went to Syracuse. B, once I got out of school and got the news bug, was always to be the know the next uh uh evening news guy that that that was that was my goal and and I was setting my career up um in radio uh to get there and what had happened was by the mid 90s I had covered just about every major news story on the planet I was a fireman for CBS. They sent me around the world to all these major stories, but I was doing radio. And I realized if I was going to be successful in media and make money, which obviously is the goal, having a family, was I had to get some television experience.

So I was working in New York at the time, and I was really good friends with Todd Pettengill, who used to work with WWUs, now a big time DJ in New York City. time and I was really good friends with Todd Pettengill who used to work with WWE now a big time DJ in New York City and Todd basically said hey come for an audition went in for an audition figured what the hell let me get one or two years of television experience so I can have that on my resume

reel and then I'll go back into the news world well 22 years later I'm still here you told me you said once you get in with the wwe it's hard to leave because it's so incredible is that kind of how you covered the world with uh in your news uh life but now you're in wwe which is literally all around the world the things and places you've seen and been are next level uh have you learned just like to appreciate and love everything that is the wwe or or is it kind of something you get

thrown into deep end and just kind of have to figure out well listen pat the big thing is is that the thing that i like about the wwe compared to working uh in news or whatnot is that even though i try much now is the fact that in wwe you can actually schedule your life you can actually look at a calendar and say hey over the next six months i'm going to be in these different places so i can actually plan time off with my family do a vacation whatever the case may be now you can always do that because if a disaster happens, say the Waco Colt standoff, you go there one day and the next thing you know, 51 days later, you're still there. So it was hard to plan things in that part of my life. Doing a presidential campaign, same thing,

out on the road for 18 straight months with a candidate. And so it was really difficult to actually have a life. And now in WWE, I was able to do that. So with that being said, WWE is the most wonderful company I've ever worked for. They have given me so many opportunities. I've grown up in this company. All you got to do is go back and look at the WWE network and see how young I actually used to be. And that's the worst thing about the network, by the way, is you can actually go back and see, hey, I was actually in shape and young at one point in my life. But no, it's one of these things where I just, I fell in love with it. And the company was really good to me and allowed me to be more than just a television announcer. It allowed me to expand my background. And I ran the

website at one point in my career, and I worked on a live event promotion at one point in my career. And now I'm in charge of all of our on-air talent. And it's just, they allow me to do a lot of different things and really have grown within the company. And, you know, I owe my career and a lot of what I've accomplished to WWE, to Vince McMahon and Triple H and Kevin Dunn and Stephanie McMahon and all of them. I've said this numerous times. I always wanted to be a part of the WWE. And then when you talk to people who maybe had a quick run or something like that, they're like, WWE is the grandest stage of the month at WrestleMania,

but the biggest platform possible in this business. Shrewd business people, though. Shrewd business people. That's what they always said. So I expected whenever I got invited to do the NXT TakeOver pre-show and go in there, I assumed everybody was going to be a bunch of assholes. Complete opposite. Me and Foxy

have got a chance to meet everybody. It's a family in there. It is really. Everybody's nice. They've been so hospitable. I think that is something not enough people know a they don't know that michael cole is a hero behind the scenes but b the people of the wwe it really is like a family in there i and i assume that is a correct assumption by foxy and i well it is i mean obviously it started out as a family business i mean when i started in

the company late 90s it was a family business it wasn't even publicly traded on wall street and now now it's grown into this multi-billion dollar global conglomerate that's a publicly traded company. But it's still the thing. Vince McMahon is still hands-on in every single thing that we do. And his family, Stephanie, Triple H, Shane, are very hands-on in everything that we do. So despite the fact that we're this huge company, we're still small. We're still a mom-and-pop company in many ways because the family is still running things. And they make you feel like a family here, which is the beauty of it. Now listen, it isn't always roses.

No company is. This is a very, very hard life. It's a very difficult life. We don't have an off season. We work 52 weeks a year. We're doing a tremendous amount of programming. Things are going to get even more difficult when we go to Fox starting this fall. But that's the challenges and it's what you make of it and how much you want to put into this place. I think I told you, Pat, and I've always told everybody that's ever come to work for this company, this place. I think I told you, Pat, and I've always told everybody that's ever come to work for this company. When you come to WWE, in order to make this what you want it to be,

you have to give 100% of yourself because that's what the company demands. And that's what the owners of the company demand. And you have to give everything you have. If you come into this place and try to half-ass it, it's not going to work. It won't work. You have to live this and breathe this. And if you're willing to do that, the sky is the limit here. You can have an incredible career. You can take care of your family and you can really do well, but you've got to put everything you have into it. So many superstars in this. I think this was during the Raw 25 where Triple H, 25, 25th year anniversary, Triple H did a little mono shot video where he said Vince McMahon has been, they're comparing Vince McMahon to other people.

I think like Barnum and Bailey's and maybe even some other people. But Vince McMahon has literally created these characters. And the WWE creates these characters, makes them superstars, then they go on to do incredible things. They're viewed as like superheroes almost. The Rock is one of these people. He's on top of the world right now, highest grossing actor on earth, was just Dwayne Johnson at one point with seven bucks in his pocket

before he comes into the WWE, becomes the biggest star on earth. The list goes on and on. Stone Cold Steve Austin, all these guys and girls make a living into the wwe becomes the biggest star on earth the list goes on and on stone cold steve austin all these guys and girls make a living post the wwe is it fun being a part of the creation process of these characters and seeing how the whole thing goes is is that a part of the job that you love or is it something that's just a part of the the the whole the whole business you get it well i love it and to see the growth of these characters and these individuals to me is absolutely incredible.

Because what Vince and the creative team does is they give them a template and then they say, listen, go out and paint your masterpiece. And the most successful people in the history of the business are themselves turned up a notch. Don't quote Steve Austin. It's Steve Austin with the volume turned sky high. The same thing with The Rock.

I mean, I always tell people when I had my mini heel run back with a WrestleMania match a number of years ago that that was Michael Cole turned up a notch, that sarcastic little prick who, you know me now, Pat. Foxy knows me. You guys know who I am. That really is me in real life. That's the type of person I am now. Am I as mean-spirited and so on and so forth as that guy was? No.

But you take your character, you turn it up in the notch. And the people that are able to do that, that are able to feel that character, are the ones who are going to be successful in this company. To be here and see a guy like a John Cena come in as this young, raw talent and turn himself into the greatest, in my opinion, of all time. And to be there for that entire ride and to be friends with John and see that happen and see how that process worked, it was absolutely incredible. To be here when The Rock first started and to see that metamorphosis into superstar, absolutely incredible. To see guys like Shawn Michaels Michaels who were here before,

you know, before obviously I got here, but then had issues left, came back and to see them when they come back and become this whole new person is absolutely incredible to me. And that's the stuff. Those are the human interest stories that, that I love about this business to see the creation of those characters and the creation of those human beings and the growth and maturity of them to see where they come from then to today. I think it's a beautiful thing that's not talked about enough. John Cena only makes bangers, by the way.

Ferdinand made me cry. That's a bull move. Oh, it's just starting to heat up. Conversation's getting good. We're starting to learn so many things we never thought we'd learn before. Ain't that right, Todd? Yeah, and it's been great so far.

I'm ready for the back half. I was about to say, wait till you see how we close this thing out. It gets good. And the room wants to know. The room wants to know. It's played. It's good. We dive deep into old Michael Cole.

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passion, and talent. But putting a female on the commentating table for Monday Night Raw was a first here recently. And you, Renee, and Corey are a hell of a team. They're on Monday Night Raw. Talk about that whole process and how easy it was because of how talented Renee is. Well, Pat, one of the things, you know, I've been very proud in my career.

And one of the things there, there, there are two things people can say what they want about me. And there, there are, there are a lot of Michael Cole detractors out there. There are a lot of Michael Cole haters and listen, be vocal, be who you are. Don't care. I've been here for 22 years for a reason. Cause I believe I'm good at what I do. You are. The two things that I've always taken pride in what I do in this company is number one, my work ethic. Nobody can take my work ethic away from me. I try to be the hardest working guy in the company. That is what I strive for. And when I leave and when I retire, the one thing I want them to say about me is, man, that guy could work, number one. Number two, I've always taken pride in my career of having the

ability to work with any single person that was put out there with me and to be able to help them grow as broadcasters, whether it be Taz, who was you know, was an ECW guy before he came here. And, you know, I turned, you know, I helped work with him and helped make a pretty damn good team on SmackDown, you know, 15, 20 years ago. And now he's doing morning, you know, morning sports radio in New York. You know, he's doing awesome in his career. And I, you know, I'm so happy for him. I'm so glad he got to that point.

But I was able to work with him. JBL, never a broadcaster before, came into the booth and I believe came one of the best broadcasters ever when he had his run a decade ago. You know, being able to, Jonathan Coachman, who I brought to WWE initially his first time around, found him, brought him in. So these are guys that I, I love because I was able to work with them. Corey Graves, another example. Hunter and I thought that Corey had something when he couldn't be a wrestler anymore.

Threw him in the booth. Corey worked his ass off for two years to get to the point where he is today. Renee, man, most talented person I've ever worked with. She has a unique ability to be likable. People like Renee. They relate to Renee. She's believable. And she's got a great sense of humor. And she's that cross between a comedian slash real sports journalist slash wrestling announcer, tremendous work ethic. And it was just time. It was time to throw her out there, give her the opportunity. And now the fact that Renee and Corey are really close friends, I get along with both of them. It has just this unique chemistry that's never been done before.

I mean, think about it. This has never been done before. Forget about sports entertainment, but there's never been a regular team of two guys and a girl on anything like this ever. So it's a pretty cool deal, and it's pretty unique to be a part of that. Well, I think you gave so many people opportunities. You ran through that list of people you made their lives better. You obviously want to leave the W. Well, of course, Pat. One thing I do want to say is I don't look at it that way.

I don't believe I made anybody's life better. What I did was I gave them a chance, and these guys, all of them from Taz to JBL to Renee to Corey to there's countless others. All I did was give them an opportunity to say, hey, can you do you think you can do this? All of these people, though, went out there and worked their rear ends off to learn how to be a commentator, which which you know, Pat, because you're learning, is not an easy thing to do. And they had to, I can't, you know, I don't have a magic wand and I can say you're a great commentator. It doesn't happen that way. I can say, hey, here's your platform. Go out there and learn how to do it. I can try to coach them,

but they have to make this. And all of those people that have been so successful um here is because of their work ethic something that i did i just want to be clear about that okay you definitely helped i mean let's not get crazy speaking of coaching whenever i got asked uh to do call a football game i knew nobody in the field i knew nobody in the field except for michael cole so i sent him a text the night before because I was given zero direction by Fox. I was given zero direction by my agents. I was just basically told that I'm calling a game. So I sent a text to Michael Cole the night before.

I was like, hey, man, you busy right now? And he's like, no, why? I was like, well, I don't want to bother you or whatever. No, Ashley, no, no, no. You said it wrong. You sent a text and asked me if I was like, well, I don't want to bother you or whatever. I was like, no, Ashley, no, no, no. You, you, you said it wrong. You sent a text and asked me if I was busy and what I, what the answer, how I actually responded was it simply said, what? Forget the niceties. None of that. But I just said, what?

Well, and then I said, I didn't want to bother you. I think. And then I told you, I said, I'm getting thrown into a booth tomorrow for a football game. What do they want from me? And you sent me back this two-scroller, basically, that just I had so much confidence going in there. I will never be able to thank you enough for that and also the opportunities that you're giving me with WWE.

Because it was, you're the, and I'll say this, I think you're the greatest play-by-play guy on earth and i don't think you get any credit for it you you have to deal with a lot i mean it's a it's a circus happening there's drama there's comedy there's action there's storylines that are interesting and hard to believe and you are just a smooth rhythmic uh you have emotion. It's just you are the top guy. So when you sent me this message, I was like,

oh, I'm going to go fucking just crushing there. I was very thankful for it. Well, Pat, the thing is, and I remember the advice I gave you, and it's the reason that we hired you. Be yourself. That's it. We hired you because of who you are. I didn't think that you should have gone into the booth and tried to be John Madden or tried to be Troy Aikman or Tony Romo. You had to be Pat McAfee.

You had to bring that sense of humor. Listen, you're a football player. You know the game. You were one of the greatest punters in history. You know the game. But what makes you stand out? What makes you unique? And it's you. It's who you unique and it's you it's who you are it's how

how entertaining you are so that's why they want you in the booth not because they want to try you to try to be some football announcer you're going to be your your your most unique guy and that's why we hired you and i told you from day one and i know that triple h has said the same thing to you we don't want pat mcafee to try to be a wrestling announcer. That's not why we hired you. That's why you're not exclusive to us. That's why Pat McAfee is going to be doing a lot of other things in the world here in the next number of months, including working with WWE,

because we want Pat McAfee. That's what we want. I don't want you to try to be Gorilla Monsoon or Jim Ross or Jerry the King Lawler or Corey Graves or anybody else. I want you to be Pat McAfee. That's what we want. I don't want you to try to be Gorilla Monsoon or Jim Ross or Jerry the King Lawler or Corey Graves or anybody else. I want you to be Pat McAfee. That's what I want. I appreciate you so much. My final question before the room has some questions for you.

A lot of big fans of yours in here, especially with what you've done with me and Foxy, but also wrestling fans. Triple H h seeing him hands-on with every decision as a guy who was such a big fan of his growing up has been awesome to see and now you've gotten a chance to really experience it from him being a performer entertainer now he's full business mogul i mean he's a business guy, not only with NXT, but also with what he's doing with WWE. How is, and you as well, being in

business decisions, how has that transition been for Triple H? Do you think it's, because he's excelling it seems as a business person. Is he going to be an even better business person than he was wrestler? What do you think? Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt. Listen, he's a Hall of Famer. He's one of the

all-time greats, but he has this incredible mind for what we do uh it's just and and it it's just he knows i mean you know obviously he's learned a ton probably everything he's ever learned came from vince um and now hunter's been able to take that experience that he's learned from working with vince and now he has put his own spin on it. And he's taken brands like NXT and made them different, different than anything we've ever experienced at the WWE level. And that's awesome. You know, and he's incredible.

He's an incredible guy to work for. And I've learned so much about the business from him. You know, it's one thing to be a commentatorator it's another thing to actually understand how the business works and you know thank god for guys like like hunter and vince to actually explain to me and show me over the years how this this business actually does operate good handshake by triple h by the way good handshake every time i do it i get uh like I'm never intimidated by anybody in my life. Everybody shits the same. But the first time I met Triple H and Vince, it was a wild moment. It was

at WrestleMania. I was like 10 minutes into the thing. I assumed everybody was going to just hate me. And then I talked to Triple H and he was like the nicest guy ever. And then Vince walks over in an incredible suit and goes, hey, how's it going? And walks away. I was like, holy shit. He had no idea who you were.

Yeah, he still does. He still does. Yeah, he still does. You should have heard what I had to go to his office and explain to him why I was giving a contract to a guy named Pat McAfee. No, you know, listen, he, and I'll never forget, did you, have you told the story of the day

that Hunter called you and you thought somebody else was calling you? I said, hey, you're going to be getting a phone call, so stand by. Yes. And I don't think I've ever told it. I thought Triple H's agent was going to call me because a couple agents wanted to sign me. So Michael Cole sends me a text. It's like, hey uh hunter and his agent or

something like hunter's agent something in that message from michael cole is like gonna call you so i'm at brunch with my lady and i get a phone call from a number i don't know so i think it's hunter's agent calling me like trying to talk to me you know i answered i go hello i was like one of those because i thought it was an agent. And I hear Pat. And I'm like, yeah. And he goes, how's it going, man? I'm like, wait a fucking minute. This is Triple H.

I was like, Sam, I had to put it on mute. I was like, this is Triple H. I got to get up. I left the restaurant, went into the parking lot, and we had like a 10-minute conversation. I was like, yeah, I'll sign with them for sure, dude, if you think I should. Anything you want, Triple H. And I did. It was a wild moment though i had to text michael call i was like yo triple h

just fucking called me and he was like yeah so i was like what do you mean this is a huge moment in my life this guy just calling me i'm on speakerphone with him it's been really cool man really real cool i'm very thankful you're the nicest guy uh i've you've i've ever encountered i think the the opportunities you've afforded me and so many others is great now here's an opportunity screw up pat just do not screw up i mean that's gonna happen i stood up well listen did you you know tell the story of when we had our we had our big conversation a couple weeks ago at the real rumble with uh with me and brian calagato from our digital team and Jeremy Borash who works down at our NXT program. And we were meeting with Pat Fox.

He was there. And we were talking about what we hope to get from you and what we're looking forward to and this and that, scheduling and everything else. And I looked at you and you had this look in your eyes like, what is going on here? And I looked at Foxy and I said, Foxy, I need your phone number and email information. It's a steel trap up here, though. I think you've learned that. If it goes in these ears, it's locked in.

It's locked in. All right, so there's a couple guys in the room that want to ask you a question. Let's go to a beautiful segment called The Room Wants to Know. That's nice thank you uh todd mccombs 21 year state police detective would like to ask you a question michael you spent your entire broadcasting company career traveling the globe with reporting on and hanging with some of just incredible historic personalities i'm sure you got a huge vault of legendary road stories.

Do you mind sharing one of your favorites with us? There we go. God almighty. I mean, there's so many, and there's so many that I can't talk about on the podcast either. Well, you know, here's an interesting one. This is sort of an overall road story. Back when the company was uh was you know vince is going to hear this and make me pay him back all his money but back when the company was private

before it was public when they scrutinized everything um when it was private you could pretty much do whatever you wanted and uh whenever we did international tours um i would go out to bars and drink all night we i i would um i would pick up the tab every night for an entire tour, 10, 14 days, thousands and thousands of dollars. And I would go back and turn in the expenses. So Tony Kimmel, one of our, you know, Tony, one of our famous ring announcers. Don't let him know I used the word famous. But Tony started to coin it, the Coltrane. So whenever we went international, every time we were going to go, we had to go on the Coltrane.

And that was sort of how that came about. Ah, that's incredible. Just thinking of you returning all these receipts. ah that's incredible just thinking of you returning all these receipts you walking into the wwf office at the time after having like five japanese receipts like for seven thousand dollars worth of drinking that i couldn't even fathom that moment it's that's beautiful zito has been trying to buy a coffin on the pat mcafee ink tab for like the last two months i couldn't even fathom having thousands of dollars of drinks trying to get an expense.

It's incredible. The next guy is from Pittsburgh. Grew up friends with Elias, like in Elias' tight friendship group in Plumboro. He's an Italian. Take it easy on him, Nick. What do you got? Michael, you have done it all in the WWE.

You're the face of the WWE. You've been the face and voice of the video game series. You've been in the video game series as a playable character, albeit one of the worst ones in No Mercy. But my question is, you're the ultimate company guy. You've done so much. Is there anything they've asked you to do, either storyline-wise or not, that you've said no to? Nope, never. And I say that without a hesitation.

I've never said no to Mr. McMahon and his company. And I'll tell you why. It's simple. The things that Mr. McMahon has done for his company, the things that he's put himself through with Stone Cold Steve Austin and getting his head shoved up the big show's backside, and all the things that he has done. If the owner of this company, who's a billionaire and has created sports entertainment

and what he's made it today, if he can do that, there ain't no reason Michael Cole can't. So I've done everything they asked me, including pretty much getting, I don't know if I'm going to say that word but pretty much being Heidenreich let's put it that way. What does that mean? What does he do? What does he say? Google it. Google Michael Cole and Heidenreich, Pat.

You'll get a nice kick out of it. Yeah, it's very similar to the scene in Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd gets trapped in the stall when Seabass comes walking in and he has to take the shower afterward. Or for the old school of us, it was very Deliverance-like. Yeah.

Wow. Okay. I can't wait to look that up on the internet. So with what you just said about Vince willing to do anything, he's still getting slapped in the face and headbutted at his age now. Shane McMahon jumps off of everything.

Do they do that so that they want to show like, hey, we're in this too? Is that kind of – that's obviously got to be the mindset by the McMahon family. Well, I think it's everything. I mean, Shane is just – and I love Shane to death. I mean, he's just crazy. He's insane. He's insane. He's insane. There's no other way to describe that because Shane's out there.

But listen, you just look what Stephanie did on Raw this past Monday night with Becky Lynch. Look what Triple H did with Becky Lynch on SmackDown Live just last night. I mean, they're still doing it today. I mean, it's being able to put yourself in the positions. Triple H went and had a match with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Kane and, you know, tore his pec, and he's still doing it. So this, it's, it's a love for the business. It's a love for the company. It's a love for what we do. And there's

nothing better. We can complain as much as we want, but there is nothing better than to go out there when that red light goes on on Monday night, to perform and to make people smile. I mean, the highlights of my career were when I had a heel run for a couple of years and, you know, really became the first time, and this is their approach for events, because this is his idea, the first time in history of wrestling that the lead guy, the play-by-play guy, the person who's supposed to be credible in the audience's eyes, you know, was a bad guy, was a heel. The first time it's ever happened.

To the point where we actually had a match at WrestleMania. Now it was the worst match ever in WrestleMania history, but we still had a match at WrestleMania. So think about that. And so it's because of being able to go out there and a love for this, and I'd probably still be a heel today if Jerry Lawler didn't have a heart attack. But nonetheless, that's me right here and right there. That happened live on air.

That was a real moment that happened there. Dickhead bad guy Cole was supposed to be a bad guy, but when one of your closest friends almost dies, it's hard to be a bad guy. That was an interesting night. That had to be crazy. Next guy, Jeffrey Gorman, was in the media world for a long, long time. Handsome old man. Mr. Cole, I know

you've had a great journalistic career, and I'm going to mention three things, and I want to know where you were closest to injury or even death. David Koresh, the Waco incident, 51 days, covering the Civil War in Yugoslavia, or the WWE? That's a great question.

Sometimes I feel like I'm near that and WWE. No, listen, the funniest thing was, it's not really funny, I mean, obviously being stranded in Bosnia for nine months on one of the tours we did there was pretty frightening. And I wasn't sure whether we were getting out of there or not. Bosnia for nine months on one of the tours we did there was pretty, was pretty frightening and wasn't sure whether we were getting out of there or not. But probably this is a, this is a funny story. When I was working at a local radio station in Houston, Texas, KTRH, there was a really bad flood and one of the rivers was, was massive flooding and oil caught on fire, caused a huge inferno on the river. And I paid some guy 25 bucks to take me out in his little boat to get into the river to do reports for the radio station. And the engine died. And next thing we do,

we ended up going toward the flames. We were like 55 feet away. I was doing live stuff on the radio. My wife was listening. Thought I had bought it that day. That probably was the closest that I've come to really feeling like I'm not getting out of this situation. Oh, my God. Michael, I mean, you're a smart guy.

I mean, all these things. You got into a river of fire. Like, what are you even... A river of flames. Well, I wasn't thinking about it until you put it like that, but... It's a much more legendary road story than covering somebody's bar taps. I'll tell you that.

This next guy is a gem of a human. He lost 40-some pounds in 32 days. He's trying to gain them all back right now. He's from Chicago. He goes by the name of a human. He lost 40-some pounds in 32 days. He's trying to gain them all back right now. He's from Chicago. He goes by the name of Zito. Sir, Mr. Cole, is there any history behind you shortening your name to go Michael Cole? Or is there a story behind that? Why did you pick Michael Cole?

It's simple. My real name is Sean Coulthard, middle name Michael. What I did was when I first started in the company, I was told that there's only one Sean. And that was Sean Michaels. So I'm like, that's fine. So I took my middle name, Michael,

cut my last name in half and made it Michael Cole. There you go. Incredible name. Am I supposed to call everybody by their names, by the way? Because Tom Pestock lived in my house for a month. Now he's Baron Corbin, and I strictly call him Baron. I don't know. Yeah, so that's one of the rules of thumb that you learn is that they're known by their talent name.

And there's a reason for that. Because when you start calling them by their real name all the time, you go on the air in the middle of a match. And I've done it before. Call them by their real name so you want to whenever you're around you you want to call by the talent name tom pestock end of days next question is coming from a patriots fan uh he's celebrating six rings here heavily he hasn't taken the tom brady jersey off for two weeks. His name's Loudass Connor. Hey, Mike. How's it going?

We talked about The Rock and John Cena. Batiste is another guy that jumps to the front for me. Is there a guy in the WWE now that you see on the big screen soon or what? That's an interesting question because everybody's always asking

who's the next guy, who's the next big movie star. You know, Roman Reigns is doing, or just finished doing a movie with Rock, his cousin, Fast and Furious spinoff. So, going to be interested to see how Roman does in that. You know, again, Roman's a guy who I think could be that person. He's got those Matt May Idol looks, really well-spoken, intelligent. So maybe he's the next guy. Roman Reigns. Okay, I have a question for you, a wrestling question.

Your thoughts. So Roman Reigns, John Cena, basically everybody. Ronda Rousey, everybody that is super babyface ends up being hated while they're still babyface? Do you guys expect that? Do you notice that? Do you see that? What happens there?

Or is the show going to go how the show is going to go? Listen, Pat, it's a different world today than it was in this business 20, 25 years ago. Social media, the internet changed everything. You know, back in the late 90s during the Attitude Era, if you wanted spoilers, if you wanted to see how fans were reacting to different superstars,

different talent that was coming up, there was two ways to get it. You either subscribe to a dirt sheet where you actually got a sheet of paper and read it, or you watch television once a week. and read it, or you watch television once a week. That's how, so you were influenced by what you saw on your television.

So the company, you know, 25 years ago, it was a lot easier to influence your audience. Hey, this is a good guy. Cheer for this person. This is a bad guy. Cheer for this person. The internet and social media has changed all that because there is instant feedback on every single person, every story we do, every show we do, there's instant feedback from our fans. And also there's instant reaction to what's happening. So for instance, if somebody comes out during the break and they get booed,

So, for instance, if somebody comes out during the break and they get booed, automatically, even if you're not watching on television, people around the world can understand, oh, my God, is Roman Reigns getting booed? They're saying he's getting booed during the commercial break. There's instant information that is available. I think that's the biggest thing. Social media has changed the game completely in our business. Number two, I think as well, is that there is a perception, right, wrong, or indifferent, that a lot of our stars are handpicked to be stars. When Ronda Rousey comes to WWE, she is a star because she was a star outside of her business. The WWE is going to position her as a star. So people are either going to say great,

or they're going to boo her believing that she hasn't earned the opportunity. Look at somebody like Becky who spent 15 or 20 years of her life getting to this point where Ronda has only been here a year. So it's natural that the fans are going to feel for Becky. Roman Reigns, people believe that Roman was being shoved down their throat for years and years and years by the WWE machine, hence the reason they wanted to fight back. Now, that's important because the, I hate to use the word Mark because they're not Marks, The, I hate to use the word Mark because they're not Marks, they're fans, but the diehard fans, the people who follow our industry, not only WWE, but everything else that's in it, those diehard fans that may be 15, 20% of our audience, they are the most vocal people on social media because they care. And that sometimes influences so many people because all you see on

social media are people blasting. I'm going to use Roman for example, blasting Roman Reigns. I hate Roman Reigns. Boo Roman Reigns. They are a very vocal minority, but a very important minority that I believe the company is finally starting to listen to in a good way. So I think social media has really influenced the way that our bad guys slash good guys are looked at today. Well, I think that vocal minority, too, they're the ones that are buying the merch, buying the tickets. They're the ones that are not all the tickets, not all the merch,

but they all are very active. I think it's an interesting time in the wwe right now it's cool watching you guys navigate the waters because that's what wwe has been able to do for so many years is just dominate entertainment and adjust and let me and you made a really good point there about uh it's an interesting time because what's going on right now is you you're really you're serving you're almost serving in many ways two types of audiences you're almost serving, in many ways, two types of audiences. You're serving your diehard, hardcore wrestling audience. And Triple H realized years ago that these people,

many of them, seem to be turned off by the core of our product. They didn't want to have as much entertainment they wanted more in-ring wrestling so what does he do he goes out and forms nxt which obviously is has this unbelievable underground flavor to it um all you have to do is look at halftime heat guys nearly three million people watched halftime let's go n. We were one of them. We had it on the TV here. Incredible. So we're able to grab that niche audience with NXT, but you still have your SmackDown and Ross,

which still has the, not only the hardcore audience, but also has the very, the casual fan who will come and go, who will turn on raw during WrestleMania season and may not go back to it until the summer when there's nothing else on TV and then goes away during football season and comes back in January for the WrestleMania run. Those casual fans, you have to keep those fans happy as well, which is why the mainstream stars of John Cena, Ronda Rousey,

Roman Reigns, people like that work. Rock comes back, Undertaker makes an appearance because of that casual audience. So it's a really tricky thing within our company to be able to please everyone and try not to alienate the hardcore fan who is with us 364 days a year. It's a big hug. It's a big hug from the average fan and then the diehard fan. We're just trying to make one big hug and put out one good show. I love NXT, by the way. I obviously have only—

We have better. We're paying you to work there. I know. But, hey, it is the greatest sports entertainment on earth. The athleticism, what Ricochet and Johnny and Tommaso and the whole Undisputed Era, what those guys and girls, the girls in NXT are incredible too. What they can do in the ring and around is next level. It's like Cirque du Soleil, but it's a full-on wrestling.

It's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. Next question comes from Foxy. Foxy has a question for you. Yep, Mr. Cole, for those that don't know, you are basically in Pat's ear directing the NXT pre-shows, correct? Yeah, well, yeah. So basically what I do, it's part of my job is,

besides being an announcer on Monday Night Raw, I'm also the senior director of Honor and Out of Talent, which is a number of roles. Number one, it's to go out there and identify and find announcers that want to work for our company and that can fit into the culture of our company, i.e. Sam Roberts on the NXT pre-shows. The other thing I do is I work with talent at the NXT level and also at the other level. I don't do SmackDown, so one of the things I do is behind the scenes

I'll help produce the announcers, help them get ready for the show. From an NXT standpoint, I'll work on the pre-show and basically I'll sit down with talent during the afternoon and I'll get their thoughts and their ideas

and how they want to handle certain segments and certain interviews. And, you know, Pat may have said, you know, most of Pat's stuff's ad lib, which is hard because I'd never know what the hell he's going to say. But, you know, I may have a specific direction.

Hey, Pat, I need you to take this direction on this particular character. And then they go out and they do their thing. And so, you know, I just try to steer them in the right direction. I never want to tell them what to say, to say it how to do it because we've hired them for the uniqueness i just want to steer them the direction of what do we have to cover to be able to sell this match or to sell this show okay two questions then was there ever a moment with pat where you were like oh shit like this is not going to work and And my follow-up question is, what was the exact moment where you're like, okay, Pat's an idiot, but this guy's going to fit into the family for sure?

That's in his words, not my words. That's what Michael would say. So the first part of that question, I never know when Pat's going to go off the rails because pat is smart in the fact that he never gives me everything in rehearsal so so pat will say yeah i'm going to do this or yeah i'm going to do that or we'll do a certain thing a certain way in rehearsal and then when it's live it's completely different than we rehearsed so i i want a natural pop i want a natural pop well it's like when you jumped up

on the desk the other day with your show your shorts off for some um well they're referenced yeah but but evan to answer your second question i knew the first five minutes that pat was on our i believe your first takeover pre-show was Mania, right Pat? Yes, sir. Okay. I believe that the first time I knew Pat was it was within five minutes of that first show. Because it was different. He was doing things, reading graphics, talking about stories, describing characters in a completely different way than I'd ever heard before. And then I realized why it's because he wasn't, it isn't a WWE guy. He wasn't using the WWE terminology and he wasn't using, you know, he was, he was describing the characters and the superstars and the stories in a way

that is unique to him in a way that I'm sure you guys sit around and discuss when you're watching the show, and that's what I love, and that's what we don't want to change about Pat. As soon as Pat becomes a WWE guy, we lose all that uniqueness. Hey, that means a lot because whenever you started the show, we sold the matches, right? So the way it goes is like you get the matches like, hey, we're going to have this match sell, this match sell, this match sell.

And this is my first time doing any WWE thing. So I know that these things happen, but I didn't know how they come about, right? Because there's always something happening, how the sausage is made behind it. So I think they were, I think you guys, I don't know if you were worried or, no, maybe not worried. Just had to be getting a little apprehensive. i only got to sell one match right so sam sold like two i think charlie sold one and then there was one match left and i got to sell it and i won ham

like it was an intro i was like here we go and i absolutely that's like one of my favorite things to do is to sell the matches just to see because i hype up fourth downs i mean fourth downs are things that nobody likes and all i do is make videos hyping it up like i enjoy the hyping of things i enjoyed a lot producer uh who went viral this last week for saying the word jesus in front of tim tebow with tim tebow's response oh god that's awesome by the way it was a magical moment. I lost my shit. I don't know if you saw, obviously. Ty Schmidt.

Michael, you've obviously called a ridiculous amount of incredible matches over the course of your career. Are there one or two that stick out as being the most special or memorable to you? Yeah, there's actually three. And the reason I say that is because I am asked this question a lot, and I've had to think about it over the years because, I mean, we're calling, what, eight matches a night, 52 weeks a year plus pay-per-views. I mean, over 22 years, that's probably 5,000 matches, right? There's three that stand out. Number one was the Mick Foley title win. Only because it was history. It was the night that Shivani went out and said, don't turn to Raw because Mick Foley wins their title.

Everything changed at that point. Plus, I was new. I was green. Jim Ross was sick. He had a bout of Bell's palsy. He couldn't be there. I had to take over for a couple of months. I had no earthly idea what I was doing,

no clue on even how to tell a story or call a wrestling match. And, you know, I went out there, and I just did what I did out of motion. And it's like playing golf. Like, if you've never played golf before, you go out and play my host's golf and hit the ball pretty good. You go, God, this is easy. You do it for a couple of weeks. Then you start thinking it and once you start thinking about it you suck so this was still the infancy stage of my career where i wasn't thinking about things i was just going out there and doing it um so that was the number one the number two one was the undertaker brock at wrestlemania when uh brock ended the streak. Because I know most of the outcomes.

I didn't know the outcome that night. And when, if you go back and listen to the call, when Brock hit him with a F5, I assumed, because I had no idea the streak was ending, I assumed that it was going to be a kickout. And I called it like I almost knew, and one of the things in our business is every finish could be the end of the match. Well, I didn't think it was the end of the match.

I think psychologically it was like, I have five and one, two. And then when the three happened, I just stopped. Everybody stopped. And you're like, holy shit, what the hell just happened? And it's like, okay, the streak's over. And that's basically how I presented it. And so that was the second one. And my favorite match of all time ever was the night that Eddie Guerrero beat Brock Lesnar for the championship in San Francisco, California at the old Cal Palace.

That, to me, was my favorite call. I believe the best call that Taz and I ever had as a team. But more importantly, just because it was Eddie. Eddie and I were real good friends. Real close with Vicky.

And just to see Eddie have that moment and to be able to be there and call it for Eddie. Because no one in a million years ever thought Eddie Guerrero was, A, going to win the championship and, B, beat Brock Lesnar to win the championship. And it happened. And that was just one of those incredible moments that I'll never forget. It was the highlight of my career.

Well, Mr. Cole, Michael Cole,ael cole boss man cult guy river of flames guy political campaign guy an incredible coach mentor and voice of the wwe i appreciate you so much for joining us you're the absolute man ladies and gentlemen michael cole thank you that i just say simply that i want to just, you know, reinforce to everyone that you are a contributor. You're going to be a part of WWE program going forward. You're going to be providing a lot of stuff on our digital platform. I think one of the beauties of our relationship, Pat,

is I don't think anybody's, you know, I think the only place that they're positive that you're going to show up on a regular basis is going to be at takeovers. But other than that, I think it's going to be pretty cool because you never know when something's going to drop on our platforms

from Pat McAfee, and I think that's going to be pretty incredible. I'll tell you, I'm really proud of what you accomplished, Pat. I don't want to turn this into a love fest. I'm not that type of guy. You know that you, I'm really proud of what you accomplished, Paul. I don't want to turn this into a love fest. I'm not that type of guy. You know that, but I'm really happy that you and your team and especially Foxy, more importantly than you, are actually on board

here. I can't wait to see what we're going to create together. My dream, one day down the road before I hang up and retire is to actually call a Monday Night Raw with you. Let's go! It would be an honor of mine, sir.

I appreciate you. You've got a great team right now, and I'm just excited to join it, and I can't wait to see what magic we can make, and I can't thank you enough for the opportunity. You're the greatest, ladies and gentlemen. The greatest man of all time, Sean Cotard. And on that note.

Hey, thank you so much. Hey, by the way, we never talked about ever switching your name. I know. There was never even a thought. I just assumed that since it's already known for being dumb enough, my name, Pat McAfee, we just stick with it. Can I leave you guys with a question? Yeah. That you guys can guys with a question? Yeah.

That you guys can debate forever and always. If I had to change Pat's name, what would we change it to? Okay, there it is. That's the Twitter question. Tag me in it. Michael Cole says he doesn't check social media, so let's just blow up his phone so notifications go crazy. Tag Michael Cole in it. Tag the NXT

in it and tag the boys in it and that's how we'll end the show and if you get the best answer best name something that pops Michael Cole makes them laugh we'll give you some free merch from store.patmagfyshow.com we have a huge St. Paddy's Day line coming up. Thank you all so much for listening and thank you so much to Michael Cole

have a great day. Ty Schmidt, hit the music. I've been staring at the edge of the water Long as I can remember, never really knowing why. I wish I could be the perfect daughter, but I come back to the water no matter how hard I try. No matter how hard I try Every turn I take, every trail I track Every path I make, every road leads back To the place I know, where I cannot go

Where I long to be See the line where the sky meets the sea It calls me And no one knows How far it goes If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me One day I'll know If I go there's just no telling how far I'll go

I know everybody on this island seems so happy on this island Everything is by design I know everybody on this island has a role on this island So maybe I can roll with mine I can lead with pride, I can make us strong I'll be satisfied if I play along But the voice inside sings a different song What is wrong with me? See the light as it shines on the sea It's blinding

But no one knows how deep it goes And it seems like it's calling out to me So come find me and let me know What's beyond that line, will I cross that line? The light with the sky and the sea, it calls me And no one knows how far it goes If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me One day I will know how far I'll go