Startling remark about Pat McAfee after WWE SmackDown; Hall of Famer concedes he “may not have been the first choice”

Pat McAfee’s WWE SmackDown appearance this week caused a lot of buzz in the pro wrestling community, and has also prompted a rather surprising comment from a Hall of Famer.

The storyline involving Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes has received significant flak from fans after Pat McAfee was revealed to be Orton’s mystery caller. There have been reports of backstage talent also not being on board with the decision to include Pat McAfee.

However, McAfee’s promo segment on SmackDown this week has convinced Hall of Famer Mark Henry that he has earned his place. Admitting that McAfee was potentially added to the storyline after later consideration, Henry stated that the only other star that could pull off such an extensive promo was probably Chris Jericho.

“There are a lot of wrestlers today that can’t pull that time on a microphone. They don’t have the bandwidth. They don’t have their memory. They don’t have the cadence and confidence and their ability to rock the mic like that. Pat McAfee did the damn job last night. And you can say whatever you want. The argument with me is, Yes, he may not have been the first choice. Or maybe he shouldn’t have been the guy in the first place. But he walked through the door. And he was the guy. And is the guy. And he lived up. There is nobody that you can mention to me other than maybe Jericho that could have done what he did. Successfully.”

You can check out his comments below:

Pat McAfee fired shots at CM Punk on WWE SmackDown

CM Punk got back his receipt for his shots against Pat McAfee on last week’s RAW episode.

McAfee blasted Punk by referencing his controversial comments about Saudi Arabia and then backtracking on it. The veteran also pointed out Punk’s merchandise on WWEshop.com.

Pat McAfee also made the announcement that tickets for the first night at WrestleMania 42 will have a significant discount if purchased before the next episode of WWE RAW. Whether this helps the ticket sales of this year’s Showcase of The Immortals, remains to be seen.

If you use any quotes from the first half of the article, please credit the source and give an H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcription.