Austin Theory took aim at Pat McAfee on Friday, calling the former broadcaster “disgusting” and saying he was still bitter about losing to him at WrestleMania 38 in 2022. Theory said McAfee’s rise inside WWE has never sat right with him, especially now that McAfee has surfaced as Randy Orton’s mystery caller and is aligned with Orton against Cody Rhodes.
“When I think back to that WrestleMania, unfortunately, I lost at that WrestleMania when I faced Pat McAfee,” Theory said in comments to Unsportsmanlike. He added that McAfee “just runs his mouth” and “talks a bunch of trash,” then sharpened the criticism by saying he was “disappointed in Las Vegas,, and WWE” for giving McAfee a platform. “Why do we have this guy?” Theory said, before arguing that someone who sits behind the commentary table should not be able to make his own schedule, step into the ring, hold “the most prestigious prize” and keep talking “for as long as they want.”
The remarks come with WrestleMania already in motion and Theory set for another high-profile assignment later tonight. At WrestleMania 42: Saturday, Theory, Logan Paul and IShowSpeed are scheduled to face The Usos and LA Knight in a six-man tag team bout that will air live on ESPN2 at 6:00 pm ET. The match gives Theory a chance to stay in the center of the card while his old grievance with McAfee hangs over the weekend.
The tension is straightforward: Theory is attacking McAfee for doing what WWE often rewards, which is crossing from commentary into the ring and thriving anyway. McAfee, meanwhile, is no longer just a target from Theory’s 2022 loss. He is now tied to Orton at a time when WWE is using familiar names to frame the road into WrestleMania, and Theory has made clear he sees that as a problem rather than a spectacle.
For Theory, the issue is not just McAfee’s return. It is that McAfee beat him once, stayed in the mix and now walks into another WrestleMania storyline with Orton. Theory sounded less interested in burying the past than in making sure nobody in the building forgot he still believes the arrangement is, in his words, “disgusting.”
