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It's not uncommon for celebrities to appear in professional wrestling throughout its history in the business. While some celebrities have appeared for NXT since its conception, none have actually wrestled a match until Pat McAfee did.
As celebrities have stepped into the ring through the years, some have delivered on the grandest of scales while others had performances so embarrassing that they were never able to live them down afterward. McAfee is definitely the former and has the distinction of being the first celebrity to have a match inside an NXT ring.
So when McAfee stepped into the ring to face Adam Cole at NXT TakeOver: XXX, he was taking the match and preparation for it very seriously. Anyone who watched the match couldn't deny the effort the former NFL punter put into that match and it was praised by fans and critics alike. Some even called it the best match of that NXT TakeOver: XXX.
NXT's Pat McAfee talks about being a fan of the business, has words for Shaq's upcoming AEW match
On Sirius XM Thursday morning, McAfee joined Busted Open Radio with hosts Dave LeGreca and Bully Ray to talk about NXT and a variety of other topics.
LaGreca, being very complimentary to McAfee, praised his work in NXT and the respect he has for the business coming into it as an outsider as compared to others who have done it before him, McAfee had this to say regarding outsiders in the past who didn't take things as seriously as he is in NXT right now:
"Well, paisan, thanks for that love, I think we talked about this before [NXT] TakeOver 30, right. I was always obviously a fan of the business and whenever you see an outsider come in and they just kind of clunk around the ring and they look stupid in there they obviously gave zero effort into either learning about what they were supposed to do, learning how they're supposed to act or anything that they were associated with, I always found that incredibly disrespectful like as a fan I was like you're getting an opportunity that I would love to have, like me, personally, I would love to have the opportunity that you're being handed right now and you're just disrespecting everything that anybody that's ever walked in those ropes you were disrespecting in my eyes now. I talked to a lot of wrestlers now where they're like, well, we don't take it as disrespect, we take it as our job to make them look good and all that s**t, you know what I mean, like I understand the respect level of professional wrestlers working with somebody who isn't a professional and it being your duty to make them look good, but I always had a conversation with my friends. If I ever got a chance to go in there, like I hope I can set a new standard for what people from the outside should go in there right. I got a lot of respect for the people and that they put their bodies through inside the ropes. I very much understand that a big part of it is building up the fight and everything like that." - Pat McAfee
Without mentioning him or the company by name, McAfee decided to give his two cents on the upcoming arrival of Shaquille O'Neal in AEW as some people are making comparisons between that and what McAfee is currently doing in NXT.
"And I know that there's somebody from the outside that's getting involved in wrestling right now and I know he is a much bigger name and human than me, but good f****** luck, pal. That is literally how I feel. And I know that a lot of people were mocking me coming in as an outsider because I wasn't a mainstream media popular person, but it's been awesome to watch my people on the internet get re-into wrestling, which is what I've seen a lot of like hey, haven't watched wrestling in a long, long time, now we're back in it because you're there and I feel like I'm, I don't want to say I'm contributing to something that gave me so much for so long, but it feels good to help out the wrestling business just a little bit. But I am eager and excited to watch other people try to do what I did and see how that goes. And I would very much like a fair assessment on those big sons of b****** whenever they get in there and fail like everybody else has in the past." - Pat McAfee
You can catch McAfee every Wednesday night on the USA Network for WWE NXT.
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