Popular podcaster & media personality Pat McAfee has been absent from the WWE announce desk since the June 9th edition of Raw and while he briefly addressed his break later that month, he spoke more about it in detail on his show Wednesday.


Pat McAfee Explains Why He Stepped Away From WWE

McAfee was talking with a guest about WWE (video below) and when the guest asked if he “hit a wall,” McAfee admitted he did and that he got “real tired.” He then talked about going non-stop since an August 2024 trip to Dublin, Ireland, before detailing a more recent sequence where he went to the East Coast for his CONCAFA soccer club followed by a trip to Parris Island, South Carolina, followed by a trip to Los Angeles for Money in the Bank.

“I could just feel it. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, my brain is not operating right now.’ I had talked to others that had maybe experienced mental exhaustion before whenever they have had it. I’ve talked to them and I’ve been like, ‘I’m staring down what you went through there’. I knew this moment was coming. I knew it was going to happen at some point and it happens to people. So, I talked to people about it happening and what they went through and as Money in the Bank was happening, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is it, I’ve finally hit it.'”

He credited WWE head Nick Khan in helping him transition out of his WWE commitments.

In doing Raw, his daily talk show, being a parent to a young child, and other commitments, McAfee said he was trying his best the entire time and “trying to put everybody over” on WWE TV — something he feels wrestling fans didn’t think he was doing.

“(Raw) is an honor to be a part of, but…I stopped going to Monday night Raw, so that took away two planes and a two-hour sleep night a week away from the schedule. And it was like, stack a couple of weeks, I feel like a human again,” he said.

Part of the confidence he had in taking a break was that with WWE, the show moves on and that due to the “hard work eithic and travel mindset,” he has “the ability to not feel absolutely f**king terrible for having to take a step back because I’m tired.”

If he does return, it likely won’t be for a while as his work with ESPN’s college football coverage begins in late-August.

“…I will always love the WWE and I miss it, but I didn’t think I would have made it. I was eyeing football season around the corner and I was, like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to survive this thing,'” he explained.