Rassle Inn #6

It's not uncommon for wrestling promotions to drag celebrities into their glop of sideshow pageantry.  Recently, AEW has attempted to court Mike Tyson (poorly, I might add) into engaging in fisticuffs with Chris Jericho.  That makes sense.

Tyson has name value and he does have experience cross-fertilizing with sports entertainers.  Hell, he played an integral role in kickstarting the Attitude Era.  A couple of weeks ago, NXT launched an angle where Adam Cole flipped his proverbial lid on The Pat McAfee Show.  He even used salty language!  Shoot!  Heat!  Conflict!  So here we have another instance where wrestling is trying to piggyback on the luster of a dignitary from the "straight world."  This does not make sense.

Keep in mind, I'm not picking on WWE.  I've already established that I wasn't crazy about the way AEW utilized Tyson's personage.  But tell me this...who the hell is Pat McAfee?  It just so happens that I'm familiar with McAfee, and as a matter of fact, I quite like the guy.  I watch too much ESPN in the morning, so I'm apprised of his work as a gasbag.  He's affable and has natural charisma with a microphone in his hand.  That's the thing, though; most people don't watch too much ESPN in the morning.  Most people have never heard of Pat McAfee.

Truthfully, the dude is a natural fit for the squared circle, either competing in it or commentating around its perimeter.  He will hold up his end of the bargain.  However, the only reason you would book this collision is to attract more eyeballs to your product (in this case, NXT).  McAfee nets you a hike of zero viewers.  Was that pun intended?  You bet your heart-shaped ass.  Is "zero" lowball ciphering?  It may be an exaggeration, but the actual figures won't be too far off from an absence of quantity.  I wouldn't be so peeved if McAfee's appearance on NXT (it's in bold because I'm referring to the TV show) this past Wednesday was effective.

I won't go bullet-by-bullet, but in brief, Cole and McAfee butt heads during a match for the NXT Tag Team Championships.  The whole scenario is predictable.  ReDragon (Fish and O'Reilly) are seriously one of the best tag teams on the planet.  They don't deserve this shit.  The match itself was reduced in priority, prominence, and goddamn significance.  And it was the main event!  Again, I'm cool with McAfee, but this is a lukewarm feud that has McMahon's fingerprints all over it.  Which McMahon?  Pick one.  I could have ranted on "Raw Underground," but I'm running low on my blood pressure medication.