Pat McAfee has helped Michael Cole learn a little something about the wresting business.
The pair, who sit behind the announce desk on WWE Raw, are almost total opposites.
Cole, a near three-decade veteran of professional wrestling, has seen it all.
He was in the house for WrestleMania 30, where Daniel Bryan stunned fans to overcome The Authority win the World Heavyweight Championship.
He has also been ringside for countless other iconic moments, including Eddie Guerrero’s first WWE championship win way back in 2004 and Seth Rollins‘ ‘heist of the century’ 11 years later.
Cole brings an air of calm to the call, which acts as the perfect foil to McAfee’s excited, booming voice on the broadcast.
The former NFL punter, in comparison to his partner, is far more of a rookie.
Due to other media commitments, McAfee has been on and off WWE TV since debuting on NXT back in 2018, but has provided color commentary on SmackDown and a number of PPVs in the years since.
While Cole has been with the WWE for nearly three decades, he has this week admitted that McAfee’s arrival actually taught him something very important about the business.
“To back up a second, I’ve been here for 28 years,” he told Front Office Sports.
“Started as an interviewer and moved into the play-by-play role.
“Really grew in the business, learned from some of the greats, including Paul Heyman and Jim Ross, how to do what I was doing.
“Pat’s allowed me to understand that this business is supposed to be fun. It’s not serious, right?
“This is supposed to be a fun place to work. Sitting back and watching Pat, the one thing I’ve learned is we’re all fans.
“Pat has allowed me to really open up. He’s taught me how to entertain.”
As well as praising McAfee for helping make his job more fun, Cole went on to suggest that his partner has helped him change his commentary style in recent years.
He said: “It’s sort of like two guys just sitting back on a Monday night drinking a beer and talking about wrestling as opposed to two guys that are trying to act as wrestling commentators.
“We’re trying to understand and decipher it just as you guys do at home.”
Cole, who also suggested his own ability to ‘evolve’ has helped him remain in WWE for so long, has not been the only one sharing praise for McAfee’s work.
Grand Slam champion The Miz, a veteran of the business, believes McAfee has taken the ‘bull by the horns’ since arriving.
“He’s been amazing for us in WWE. He’s a ball of energy,” Miz said last year.
“He usually flies in – because he does his show – and he’ll do our show. It’s very difficult to do.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, color commentary, it’s not that hard,’ It’s very difficult. It’s a whole different mindset.
“The way he’s been able to come into WWE and really just take the bull by the horns and really go out there and do just a fantastic job of storytelling.
“That’s what we do. We tell stories, and the way he’s able to communicate that to our audience is unmatched. He’s been doing a great job at it.”
