Triple H Says It's "The Truth" Pat McAfee Left The NFL In Hopes Of Becoming A WWE Superstar

Triple H recently conducted a media call ahead of this Sunday's WWE NXT "Takeover: WarGames 2020". One of the big War Games matches will feature former NFL player Pat McAfee, and Triple H have his thoughts on McAfee's performance so far, noting that his dream has always been to be a WWE Superstar.

"I absolutely think they have a good thing going, and I think that is to continue onward for sure," Triple H stated. "I think there's something really special happening there. As far as Pat goes, Pat's a real unique character in that his desire to be WWE Superstar. It's funny that people sometimes criticize people, or performers, or whatever they are as outsiders. 'Oh, this football player is coming in.' Football is a job he ended up in.

"The truth is, he's been a WWE fan his whole life and wanted to do nothing more with his life than to be a WWE Superstar. He was a great athlete that was also a natural performer and got an opportunity to make a lot of money in the NFL and took it, and ran with it, and left the NFL because he wanted to take an opportunity to do something more. And hopefully, it would land him in a position to be in the WWE.

"I had no idea of a lot of those things when I first met Pat, but they're the truth. He's so passionate about what we do, and I think that's why he's good at it. I think it's why he proved it in that match. His passion shines through on this."

McAfee impressed many in his match against Adam Cole, leading to many questions about his long-term future in wrestling. Triple H praised McAfee for having skills that surpass those that have been in the business longer than he has, describing McAfee as "the proverbial heat-seeking missile."

"As far as him opening eyes, he's a gifted athlete," Triple H said. "He gets it, been a fan his whole life, and is absolutely dedicated to doing this. So, it's phenomenal to see him do it, and he has a lot of other opportunities and a lot of things happening in his life. He'll be the first guy to tell you about them, but that's part of the beauty of it. He loves it, and I love working with people like that.

"He's so passionate about it, and after he performs, he comes back and you can see the buzz of him. He's got the bug and he loves it, and it's great to see as far as his performance goes. If you ever met Pat, listen to him talk for five minutes. From a heat seeking point, he's there. He is the proverbial heat-seeking missile, just him. So he can go out there and just transfer that and put it on TV in a way that very few people ever can. It's not a schtick. It's not an act. It's not anything. He's just being Pat, and he's got the gift of gab. He loves to perform.

"He loves to irritate. He loves to mess with people, and man, it just comes through in a glowing way that when you think about, he's been doing this for a very, very short period of time. And he's getting a lot of direction, but to be in a position where he's better at it than a lot of people that have done it their whole lives, that's a testament to him. But I'm very proud of him, very excited to be working with him and looking forward to a lot of big stuff."

Over the past month, McAfee has been waging war against Undisputed Era alongside his group, The Kings of NXT. One member of the group, Danny Burch, has been in NXT for quite some time but has always seemingly flown under the radar. Triple H discussed that notion, praising Burch's skills and work ethic.

"Danny's always been one of those guys to me, he looks the role. In many ways, [he] is the role," Triple H noted. "He has a believability to himself and his work. There's a lot of times [where] there's talent that stand out more because they are more dynamic, flashy, or whatever that is. That consistency though – there's a lot of times there's something to be said for that and that consistency. Danny's an amazing in-ring performer and technical guy; he can do it all. It's just, sometimes, performers like him tend to do exactly what you said, they float under the radar because they're always good.

"They're always consistently good. They always deliver, but they're always sort of delivering on something for somebody else that has more flash, more pizzazz, more ways to captivate someone's attention, but that long-term consistency in today's world is sometimes I think that's negated. That not a good thing. When I hear people– it used to be the term 'mid-card for life'. So many amazing hall of fame level, legendary iconic performers that were never 'The Guy', and that is a phenomenal place and a value as a valued performer.

"And so when you talk about Danny Burch, to me, yeah, he's an extremely valuable performer. I look at him and I wish I could have a lot of people that were that dedicated, that professional, that polished, that good at what they do, and dedicated to how they got there to do it. And that's an awesome thing. So, I can't say enough good things about him, but he is one of those guys that will fly under the radar right up until he doesn't."

WWE NXT presents WarGames this Sunday night December 16 live on the WWE Network.