Pat McAfee is Feuding with CM Punk and Why Would You Come for Chicago’s Guy?
Pat McAfee is feuding with WWE’s CM Punk, and it’s a massive problem. The sports commentator is at the center of WrestleMania’s build this year, for better and for worse.
WrestleMania 2026’s main event for night one of the two-day extravaganza is WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton. However, this supposed feud has ended up being all about a former NFL punter. McAfee was revealed as a “secret ally” to Orton, and gave a bizarre promo that criticized current WWE talent.
Once that occurred a few weeks ago, CM Punk (real name: Phil Brooks) came out to back up the wrestlers that found themselves pilloried. In his usual brash style, the “voice of the voiceless” put McAfee on blast. (He also took a jab at the ticket prices being so high, which got more of a rise out of the crowd than anything else.) But, now the NFL personality is in a full-blown feud with Punk too.
Pat McAfee is the main event of WrestleMania for some reason?
On Friday’s edition of SmackDown, the promotion leaned-into the banter to disastrous effect. Cody Rhodes strolled out there for a war of words with McAfee. That was silly, and maybe worse yet, further obscured the wrestling match we’re all supposed to be caring about right now.
Even more funny, WWE corporate owner TKO has now become the default “bad guy.” This isn’t the first time TKO has found themselves as part of the storyline. Most modern wrestling fans remember when The Rock came back two years ago. After an ill-received pivot right before WrestleMania, WWE’s creative minds had an idea. TKO executive Ari Emmanuel would be the one helping The Rock usurp Cody Rhodes.
That pivot went over tremendously with the fans. Even for non-wrestling fans, the main event of that year’s big event was warmly received. But, as with a lot of things in entertainment right now, there’s a theory of diminishing returns. We can’t keep going back to the same well, especially when homeboy is not The Rock.
Still, WWE pushes ahead with McAfee as the cornerstone of this WrestleMania build. The tickets are outrageous, folks are upset about Night One’s main event being cluttered with celebrities, and they’re in Vegas for the second year in a row. But, that might not matter!
CM Punk is just saying what the fans can’t
Luckily for the fans, Punk is basically going to let McAfee have it during WWE Raw on Netflix tonight. But, the damage is largely done. The NFL personality is gonna be front and center in Las Vegas. However, it’s caused a lot of fans to wonder if we’re nearing the point of too many celebrities being in the mix. AEW wrestler Kenny Omega had some thoughts on how this could be rough for the business longtem.
Omega opined to ClutchPoints this year, “When you start to realize how important and powerful a thing social media is, it just becomes the natural progression of ‘How much are we going to lean towards that for a way to stay relevant? For a way to keep our finger on the pulse?’”
“‘For a way to just hold on to the stranglehold that we have over our current fan base and possibly hope to increase our fan base through this new sort of ADHD style of professional wrestling?’”
(Photo Credit: Netflix)
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