WWE: Pat McAfee Explains Detailed Reasons for His Current WWE Abscense, A&E WWE Ratings for July 13th, More News

Jul 17, 2025

Pat McAfee Explains Detailed Reasons for His Current WWE Abscense

Pat McAfee has been absent from WWE’s RAW brand commentary team since the June 9th RAW show. McAfee had stated in an episode of his The Pat McAfee Show this past June that the reason for his abscense was due to him feeling “exhausted.”

Wednesday’s The Pat McAfee Show featured co-host McAfee providing additional details regarding the reasons for his current abscense from WWE.

“I got really tired. I hit [a wall]. I’ve been going since Dublin. They started Raw early, and I’m like an energy guy. I don’t need a lot of sleep. I just got to Money in the Bank in LA and I was on the East Coast for TST, then I went down to Paris Island, then I went to LA for Money in the Bank, and I could just feel it. ‘Oh my God, my brain is not operating right now.’ I talked to others that maybe experienced mental exhaustion before whenever they had it. I talked to them and been like, ‘I’m staring down what you went through. I knew this moment was going to happen at some point.’ It happens to people. I talked to people about it happening and what they went through when it happened. As Money in the Bank was happening, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it. I have finally hit it.’ I never thought it was going to happen. You add in my daughter and wanting to be around. The daily show, the travel. Also, trying my best, I know a lot of wrestling fans don’t think this, but I was trying to put everybody over. Maximum effort, every time, trying to put people over. I think that with the travel, me not getting back to 2-3 AM on Monday. That’s the beginning of our work week Tuesday – Friday, I have 12 hours left of being on.”

McAfee also gave his thoughts about how he got through the exhaustion issues.

“We still have to do a show. I stopped going to Monday Night Raw, so that took away two planes and a two hour sleep a night week away from the schedule. Stacked a couple of those weeks.”

McAfee also gave his thoughts about how the WWE product hasn’t suffered without him.

“Corey Graves, so good. Wade Barrett, so good. For me, at the commentator position, the show moves on regardless. The ability to not feel absolutely fucking terrible for having to take a step back because I’m tired, WWE on the other side, they have such a hard work and travel mindset, they understand. They’ve been great. I will always love the WWE. I miss it, but I don’t think I would have made it.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

A&E WWE Programming Ratings – July 13, 2025

This past Sunday’s WWE LFG episode drew 98,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

This was down compared to the June 22nd season two premiere’s 114,000 viewers and its 0.04 18-49 demographic rating.

The viewership and ratings for the June 29th and July 6th episodes are currently not known.

Source: Programming Insider

WWE News & Notes

Wednesday’s WWE EVOLVE show on Tubi featured NXT talent Brooks Jensen making his surprise WWE EVOLVE debut appearance. Following Jackson Drake’s victory over Lince Dorado to retain the WWE EVOLVE Men’s Championship, Jensen ran out and attacked Drake from behind laying him out. This was Jensen’s first appearance since the June 3rd episode of NXT.

WWE did not air a new episode of WWE Speed on Twitter on Wednesday. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the reason why WWE did not air a new episode is currently not known based on his sources.

Deltatre announced that they recently entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Endeavor Streaming from Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. Endeavor Streaming is the current streaming provider of the WWE Network and TNA Wrestling’s TNA+ streaming service.

WWE is currently selling tickets for their upcoming new talent tryouts on July 31st that will be publicly available to fans to attend. Tickets for this upcoming tryouts are priced at $95 each.

WWE recently released one new video for their on-going Top 25 SummerSlam matches of all-time countdown. The #15 spot was the WWE Universal Championship Fatal Four-way match of Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar (c) from SummerSlam 2017.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a WCW World Heavyweight Championship Tag Team mach of Randy Savage & Sid Vicious vs. Kevin Nash & Sting (c) from WCW Bash at the Beach 1999.

WWE also recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “Story of John Cena vs. The Nexus at SummerSlam 2010.” The second new video was a WWE Hardcore Championship match of Steve Blackman vs. Shane McMahon (c) from WWE SummerSlam 2000.

In a recent interview with WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley, former WWE talent Carlito gave his thoughts about his return to WWE at Backlash 2023. Carlito stated “It was fun. It was crazy, yeah. It’s cool things. People wanted to see this for, geez, probably at least over a decade. They always wanted to see me back. So it was cool to do it in Puerto Rico. I think even the office didn’t think I would get this reaction. Shirt came off quick. I said, I don’t want to be on world television. I’m going to get it on TV real quick. I’ll show my kids one day if I have to.” Carlito also gave his thoughts about Damian Priest had helped pushed for his return to WWE at the event. Carlito stated “You’d have to ask Bad Bunny because I’m sure (it was) as big as Bad Bunny, Damian Priest’s really idea to come back, for me to come back to this.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Battleground Podcast, Trick Williams gave his thoughts about him potentially being called up to the WWE main roster while as TNA World Champion. Williams stated “Man, that’d be beautiful. I mean, nothing would change. I mean, I just got a book a flight from Thursday night to Friday, if it’s on SmackDown, that’s the only thing that’d be different, but man, I wear this gold with pride, man. Contrary to belief, Twitter’s also saying that, this is just a vanity project for Trick Williams and he doesn’t really care about the brand. TNA is just a side quest. No, man, I’m proud to be the TNA champion. Look at the history that’s been done there. You know what I mean? I’m proud to say that after everything, the AJ Styles, the Samoa Joes, the Mooses, you know what I mean? The Bubba Ray Dudleys, you know. Kurt Angle. When you look at all these greats, I’m able to say that Trick Williams is the best of them all. That’s a big deal. No, I really do, I take pride in that, man. So when people, try to downplay my investment or, you know, how much I love the brand, I mean, I really do bleed Trick-NA.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox podcast, Rhea Ripley gave her thoughts about WWE’s Evolution 2 event and her match against IYO SKY for the WWE Women’s World Championship at the show. Ripley stated “Yeah, I did (feel like Evolution had the same vibe as NXT of the past). I felt like everyone was going out there to kind of prove a point and make people pay attention to us a little bit more, which was really cool to feel and then see everyone’s reacting to Evolution 2 and everyone’s so positive about it, everyone was so happy afterwards, everyone thought that they went out and gave it their all… It was an awesome feeling. The locker room was happy, we all felt very accomplished. So, yeah, it was a special night for sure and then going out there with IYO (SKY), someone who I’ve gone through NXT with, Mae Young Classic with and then main roster with… WrestleMania (41) with Bianca (Belair). We’ve gone through so much together so then to main event a Evolution 2 and be able to show everyone exactly what we can do in the ring together. It was a lot of fun and it made me proud to be a female professional wrestler. Please, I would like to not wait that long again because I think that we do deserve a show like that. It’s different… They (the crowd) were there for it the whole night and if anything, they got louder, the more the night went on. It was insane… I’m mad about (Naomi cashing in) but I’m happy for her.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)