Eric Bischoff on No One Ever Pulled Out of a Celebrity Angle in WCW Like Pat McAfee Did in WWE

As noted before, Pat McAfee recently made the decision to drop out of his storyline with Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship and causing plans for a tag team match involving him and Jelly Roll at this May’s Backlash 2026 event to be dropped as well. McAfee’s decision to drop out was believed to be due to the negative online backlash from fans and negative reaction within WWE’s locker room over his involvement in the storyline.

A recent episode of the 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff podcast featured WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff giving his thoughts about McAfee pulling out of his storyline angle with WWE. Bischoff also gave his thoughts about how no one ever pulled out of a celebrity angle like McAfee did during his time running WCW.

Conrad Thompson – “Do you remember there being celebrities where, it seemed like a good idea on paper and everyone was excited about it, but once you revealed it and in execution somewhere along the way, the celebrity said, ‘Hey, I know we talked about this, but I’m not having as much fun as I thought, I think I’m going to take a pass.’ We saw it happen last year at WrestleMania with Travis Scott and now this year at Pat McAfee, did something like this ever happen with you and WCW?”

Eric Bischoff – “Not, no, not as you [Conrad] described it, no, nothing even close, nothing even close. And I’m just trying to imagine what that must be like for Bruce [Prichard] and Paul [Leveque], everybody that has to do with talent, certainly at this level…Nick Khan and probably Ari [Emanuel] to a degree. If you’re a Pat McAfee or a Jelly Roll, you don’t want that smoke. You don’t want, you’re not that kind, you know, now it’s hurting your brand. Now you’re not as cool as you were before you stepped into the ring.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com