Pat McAfee Explains Cancelled Bit From WWE SmackDown With Him Playing Vince McMahon

– During this week’s edition of his own weekly podcast, WWE SmackDown broadcaster Pat McAfee Below detailed a segment from SmackDown that got dropped from last week’s Throwback episode at the last minute. As noted, WWE released a clip showing McAfee arriving to arena dressed as Vince McMahon. According to McAfee, more material was planned after that clip, but it got dropped. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Pat McAfee on the sketch being cancelled: “On Friday, to commit to a bit of being Vince McMahon on SmackDown Throwback, I was bullied into shaving my face. Michael Cole was one of the leaders of that bullying. I thought it was Be A Star. Michael Cole goes, ‘You could commit and shave your face.’ Cole had an awesome look as well, which didn’t make it to air. He had the frosted tips and he committed to 1999 Michael Cole. We had the wig, which was too small for my head and it felt like my forehead was in a rear-naked choke. We had the suit, the tie, I wore dress shoes for the first time. A lot of people in WWE were like, ‘this is awesome. We’ll remember this and you doing it for the character and the bit.’ I shaved, it looked terrible. I got makeup on, we shot a bunch of shit. I did an entire Vince McMahon thing. Immediately following, literally, as soon as I walked off-screen, Foxy [McAfee Show Video Producer Evan Fox] gets a text from someone that works at WWE [saying] ‘hang tight.’ I go, ‘Oh, Vince is coming?’ No, that’s not the case. They come out and everything has been canceled. I walk back into the building and everyone who was motivating me to shave my face, they heard about what happened, and were like, ‘Sorry, so sorry, it’ll grow back.’ Four days! Nothing! That beard was older than Jesus ****ing Christ! I look like I’m twelve.”

On his research for the segment: “I was watching film. I didn’t think I did enough research before Friday, but once I got to Friday, it hit me. ‘I’m Vince McMahon, on Vince’s show, in front of Vince.’ Vince doesn’t like that type of shit. He doesn’t like acknowledgment or to be thanked by people or mentioned by people. I was going to be coming out like ‘You’re…fired!’ I had a moment like, ‘This could be real bad.’ I started watching videos. The walk, he has a little D’Lo Brown with the head movement. I was excited. I thought there was a chance we do something magical and all of a sudden…it’s over.”

On cameras following him for the material: “WWE was following me around all day to create like a documentary of me becoming Vince McMahon. That’s real. It should be shown, the depths that we went to to make this happen, and then it immediately getting flipped on its head. Would have been cool, maybe next time.”