Subscribe to PopCultPat McAfee Gets In The Ring…Again
August 20, 2020 by Rudy Panucci
Pat McAfee (seen right) is a sports legend in West Virginia. As the kicker for the WVU Mountaineers he ended his college football career as the team’s all-time leading scorer. He went on to an all-pro career in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts, before making a seamless transition into broadcasting, working first with Barstool sports before graduating to high-profile gigs with Fox Sports and ESPN, and now also hosts his own syndicated radio show/video podcast, The Pat McAfee Show.
However, Pat always had another dream.
Pat wanted to be a professional wrestler.
This Saturday at NXT Takeover XXX (seen on The WWE Network), Pat will make his debut in a match against former NXT champ, Adam Cole, with whom McAfee has been feuding for some time (seen left).
However, this will not be Pat McAfee’s professional wrestling debut.
On March, 22, 2009, just days before he signed his NFL contract, Pat McAfee wrestled a match against Warpig for IWA East Coast, in South Charleston’s Rec Center. I was able to capture the match in a low-res photo essay for PopCult, and we re-present it for you here…
To set up this match, at an earlier show, McAfee did a run-in while signing autographs. He also did a quick video message for Radio Free Charleston, which was awfully nice of him…
Below you see Pat headed to the ring to confront Dr. Max Graves and his charge, the monster known as “Warpig.”
Warpig did not exactly welcome Pat with 0pen arms.
In fact, the then-NFL prospect was welcomed with a body slam…..
…and was on the receiving end of a nasty kick.
The tide turned when McAfee scored his own kick, punting Warpig’s head through the uprights for the pin.
If you want to relive the pro wrestling debut of Pat McAfee, and see other wrestlers like Mad Man Pondo, Juggulator, M Dogg 20, Viper and current NXT star, Joaquin Wilde, back when he was known as Shima Xion, you can still order the DVD of IWA East Coast’s “Scarcade” HERE.