Pat McAfee Opens Up About Continuing WWE Raw Absence

Since WWE Money In The Bank earlier this month, Pat McAfee has been absent from the commentary desk on "WWE Raw." During his first week away, "WWE SmackDown's" Wade Barrett stepped in for the 38-year-old, with "WWE NXT's" Corey Graves being featured alongside Michael Cole for the past two Mondays. Until this week, the reasoning behind McAfee's absence remained unclear, but during a recent edition of "The Pat McAfee Show," the former NFL kicker revealed that he's simply just taking time off after becoming fatigued in his current role.

"Continuing to just like kind of catch up on life as a whole, post Money In The Bank, pre Night Of Champions feels like a good time. I was getting pretty exhausted there. So shout out to everybody at the WWE looking out for me too. Very thankful."

McAfee didn't reveal if he would appear on the broadcast desk at WWE Night Of Champions, or if he would return to "Raw" sometime following the event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Graves expected to be his temporary replacement for the remainder of his time off. McAfee also competed in a singles match for the first time in two years at WWE Backlash this past May, where he suffered a gruesome loss to GUNTHER, but almost managed to survive 15 minutes before eventually being pinned.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Pat McAfee Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.