Pat McAfee Details The Secrecy Surrounding His WrestleMania 39 Impromptu Match

Perhaps one of the least-shocking surprises of WrestleMania weekend was that Pat McAfee showed up for an impromptu match, taking on The Miz during night one on Saturday. And as was reportedly the case with his last return, when he did commentary at the Royal Rumble in January, this one was also played close to the vest before showtime, with McAfee explaining on his show on Monday that only five people, himself included, knew of the plan in advance.

"Michael Cole had no idea that I was there," McAfee explained.

While on his tour bus, McAfee did catch Cole walking by and wanted to talk to him, but he decided against it because he wasn't sure if it would disrupt the plans for his segment.

"Obviously, Miz did not know until Saturday," he continued. "For [a] shoot. When my music hit is near when Miz found out."

McAfee also congratulated WWE for "the biggest and best WrestleMania of all time," citing WWE's claims about the various business records that it broke over the weekend and shouted out the WWE production staffers who he caught up with, as well.

McAfee has been around WWE much less over the past six months after he joined ESPN's "College Gameday" last September. His impromptu match with The Miz on Saturday was officially his sixth in WWE and his third at a WrestleMania, with the former NFL punter having defeated Austin Theory and lost to Mr. McMahon on night two of last year's show of shows. McAfee also picked up a win over Baron Corbin at SummerSlam last year and went 0-2 in "NXT," succumbing to Adam Cole in a singles match and being on the losing side of the 2020 men's WarGames match against The Undisputed Era.