[grunts softly]
My birth name is Colby Lopez.
Colby Daniel Lopez, middle name.
I have wrestled as…
God,
Gixx,
Taj the Destroyer,
Tyler Black…
um…
and now I wrestle as Seth Rollins.
♪ Burn it down ♪
[rock music playing]
♪ Whoa ♪
♪ Whoa-oh-oh ♪
♪ Burn it down ♪
My name was not chosen by me specifically.
It was chosen by the late, great "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes,
who was the head of creative at the time I was in developmental, way back in 2010.
I still wear the brace on my boot.
And Dusty Rhodes, "The American Dream," and '86 is my time.
I had this list. I'm sitting in this office with Dusty,
and he's looking at it, and he's got his little glasses on.
[mimicking Dusty] "And what name do you like, baby?"
"I see you got 'Rollins' circled over here. I like that."
"That's good. That's nice. Uh, hmm…"
"Oh, Seth. That's it. I think that might be it, baby."
"Seth Rollins. Yes, that's it. Seth Rollins, baby."
"I see it now. I see it on the marquee for WrestleMania."
"Seth Rollins, baby. That's it. That's it. We got it."
[Cole] "The Visionary,"
"The Revolutionary,"
Seth "Freakin'" Rollins.
[Rollins] Coming out of WrestleMania, Seth Rollins is at the tip, tip-top.
A position that I think everyone who gets into our business wants to be at.
Very few have the ability to get there and to stay there.
[Barrett] And Seth "Freakin'" Rollins has just mastered this art.
[Becky Lynch] Seth Rollins.
Seth "Freakin'" Rollins. AKA Coby Lopez.
AKA the greatest man on the planet.
My hot husband.
[laughing smugly] That was terrible.
- [Cole] Oh my God. Seth going up top. - [woman] I like where this is headed.
[Cole] Rollins at the top of the ring post. Leg drop from Becky.
- Splash from Rollins. - [McAfee] Whoa!
I love having her on the road with me.
It's a great… great thing to be able to share special moments together,
understand each other, be there for each other.
I remember the first time I found out that Becky and Seth were an item,
and I had no idea.
And it was the last time we were at MetLife Stadium for WrestleMania.
And then Becky was about to go on,
and I was behind Gorilla.
And all of a sudden, I see them making out.
- Love you. - Love you.
I think I even joked, like, "God, get a room."
[calming music playing]
[Rollins] Becky's…
Like, she's one of zero. You know, she's a unicorn.
They don't… They don't make those, you know?
Thank God I snatched her up. [chuckles]
We had a very small wedding in Kauai in 2021.
I now pronounce you guys married.
[guests cheering]
[Rollins] We didn't have a band, a DJ, nothing. It was 20 people in Kauai.
[guests whooping]
[Rollins] So we put my phone in a bowl,
and we had our first dance, and that was it.
It's the most rinky-dink shit.
[both giggling happily]
[Rollins] It's a great thing to be able to travel the world
and go wrestling with my best friend and my wife.
[Hunter] In WWE, it is relentless. It is waves against the beach.
No matter what you're doing, the story never ends.
24-7, 365,
no days off here.
When we get to WrestleMania, we are paying off months of work.
The day after WrestleMania, we're beginning the cycle all over again.
[Cole] John Cena!
[Hunter] Over the next several months,
we just keep raising the stakes for everybody until we get to SummerSlam.
[Cole] Cody Rhodes! One of the biggest shockers in recent memory.
[Hunter] We will set the ball in motion for all our WWE Superstars.
Injuries will happen and looking for new stars.
[Cole] Naomi is Miss Money in the Bank!
[Hunter] SummerSlam is that long-term destination.
[Cole] Lands on his feet, may have tweaked his knee.
Get everybody outta here so he can get through.
[Cole] Cover!
[Hunter] This year, you will see that play out
with Superstars like Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.
They're prime examples of us playing the long game.
[Barrett] No!
Oh-ho-ho!
[Cole] Oh my God, Rollins is the World Heavyweight Champion!
[Hunter] Their build to SummerSlam began at WrestleMania.
[intriguing music playing]
[man] Let's see. How long have you been working?
Um… Gosh, Colby, how long have we been working?
[Rollins] Since… In the ring?
- [Lynch] Yeah. - [man] Yeah.
This is our fourth or fifth time here.
Yeah, but when did I start? Two months ago?
Yeah, that sounds about right. About two months.
[Lynch sniffs]
Let's try to get calloused again.
[Rollins chuckles]
- [man] So it's Tuesday. - [Lynch] Yep.
- [man] Four days before Mania. - [Lynch] Yep.
Can't have WrestleMania without "The Man."
[man] The plan is for you to be there this weekend, correct?
'Tis.
[man] And how did that come about?
My real name is Rebecca Quin.
Over the years, I've gone by "The Lass Kicker,"
"The Man," "Big Time Becks,"
"Becky Two Belts,"
and I'm currently known as Becky Lynch.
[intriguing music playing]
[Hunter] Becky Lynch, very talented,
top of the women's locker room.
But starting out, maybe just a notch behind
some of the other folks that came up the same time as her.
I was seen as somebody who had something,
but not… not "it,"
not, like, star appeal.
I was constantly on the chopping block from day one.
It sort of makes her an underdog.
'Cause you're the least relevant of all of us.
[crowd] Oh!
[Hunter] And then she uses that underdog persona for her character.
There's a moment where Nia Jax just legitimately busted her nose.
[Cole] Becky may have a broken nose. Obviously, she doesn't care.
[Hunter] Odds stacked against her and still come out, blood all over her,
standing in the aisle with her fist up in the air.
That makes her.
She becomes known as "The Man."
- [rock music playing] - [crowd cheering]
[Lynch] And usually, "The Man" is a man.
But when I rose through the ranks,
then I was "The Man." 'Cause I was the top dog.
- [McAfee] Becky Lynch has done it! - [Cole] We got a new Women's Champion!
"Becky Two Belts"!
I wasn't meant to be the talk of the entire industry.
But here I am.
[music fades]
[Lynch] 2024, I was pretty burnt out.
And I said, "Okay, I think this is a good pause."
I had been going on… all cylinders
since I came back from having my daughter.
Come here, little honey.
- [Rollins] You taking her out? - [Lynch] Yeah.
- [Rollins] You just wanna hold her? - I just wanna hold her a little longer.
Oh!
Moms.
She's such a mom.
Great momma.
[gentle music playing]
Oh, she's out.
She… This is…
[Lynch] Seth and I are parents to our little daughter, Roux Lopez.
- Done. - Ring the bell.
She puts so much pressure on herself to do everything well,
including be a mother,
Becky's still gonna feel like maybe she's not doing it right.
I cannot say enough about how incredible she is as a mother,
how caring and responsible and loving she is.
Good sit, baby!
Mwah!
I love WWE, but I was away from her quite a bit.
And I felt like when I'd come home, she'd be mad at me, you know?
And I hated that. She was always like my little bud.
[Roux babbling]
Ooh, that's Dada's. Yeah, do we get this?
For all the thrills that you feel going out there in front of 30,000 people
chanting your name or booing you or whatever it is,
like, when I go to her gymnastics class
and I see her doing, like, a half-decent cartwheel,
I'm like, "Oh my God, my baby!" It's the greatest thing ever.
May 2024.
I told Hunter,
I said, "Look, my contract's up. I wanna take some time off."
And he said, "Okay, well, look, we'll pause it."
"We'll give you a little bit of time,
and then we'll renegotiate the contract whenever you're ready."
So that's what we did.
By early '25, she was ready to come back,
so she begins to train with Seth.
You're trying to get a hold of her the whole time. You're like, "Ah! Shit!"
So I started training with Colby about…
is it confusing if I call him Colby? Okay.
So I started training with Colby around… 'Cause it's weird for me to call him Seth.
[Rollins grunts]
"I got her. No, I don't. I got her. No, I don't."
[Lynch] We would just get in there and move around and, you know…
I always keep fit,
so, like, I was fit.
But ring shape is a whole different beast,
especially when you haven't done it for a while.
Like, your back is just totally bruised.
Like, you feel like you've been in a car crash.
Yeah, no, that's why. I just… It doesn't feel good, this side.
Yeah, no. Ow, that's my back.
[Rollins scoffs]
Yeah, my back. Oh, my back's just really starting to seize up now. [groans]
So I felt that, and that's par for the course.
[man] How should we be thinking about Becky Lynch?
[Hunter] Right now, the plan with Becky is a surprise at WrestleMania.
Did we talk about… I mean,
the surprise at Mania as, like, Lyra's partner?
- That's what we talked about. - [Koskey] Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
[Barrett] Bell to bell, in ring,
Lyra Valkyria is as good as anyone.
[woman] My
real name is Aoife Cusack.
I've wrestled as Valkyrie, Aoife Valkyrie,
and now with WWE, Lyra Valkyria.
[Cole] Lyra Valkyria, she's here tonight.
[Lyra] I'm from Dublin, Ireland,
and what made me wanna start was Becky Lynch.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Becky Lynch making her NXT debut.
[Lyra] The first NXT match I ever saw was Becky Lynch's debut.
I turned on the TV. There's an Irish girl doing an Irish dance.
That's when I really started to wonder, "Well, where did she learn wrestling?"
So that was when I started to look into wrestling schools near me.
Becky came to our gym in 2018.
I was a nervous mess.
And I just…
[giggles] …just, like, teared up, didn't know what to say to her.
And I was like, "I'm so sorry. I'm not usually like this."
And she was just lovely to me.
But she was already a big star,
and I was just doing shows on the independent scene.
We took a photo, and now that photo is, like, priceless.
[Cole] Now Lyra's… Into the Nightwing!
- The cover. - [crowd] One, two, three!
[Cole] There's your brand-new Intercontinental Champion!
[Lyra] It's kind of been a meteoric rise.
It's just been the most insane year of my career so far.
[Cole] Lyra Valkyria, who is one of the breakout stars of 2024.
[Hunter] In what we do,
when there's connective tissues and you present them right,
it can be a very powerful thing.
Like Becky with Lyra,
somebody that we know she has an emotional connection to,
they can work and be very powerful.
If Lyra did not have a partner, and there's the,
"Oh my God, who's she going to get?" There's nothing wrong with… saying,
"It's obvious it's going to be Becky Lynch."
And then it is.
When she comes out, they're gonna lose their minds.
They're gonna fucking pop because Becky Lynch is back.
She's petrified she's going to come back and be less over.
[Lynch] When you're in this world, and you're always wanting to be on top,
you have to kind of feel like you're always fighting something.
You're fighting yourself.
You're fighting, you know, people that feel like they wanna put you down.
You're also getting opinions about yourself constantly,
about who you are.
Not that you believe them,
but maybe it lies somewhere in the back of your head
where you're going, like, "Oh, maybe I am a bad person."
- You feeling good though? - [Lynch] My back's really sore.
[both chuckling]
From what? Sitting around?
You know, I love working. I love getting out in front of the crowd.
I love wrestling.
But there's also that hard part of, "Now Mum's got to go to work."
[Roux crying]
[Lynch] That guilt is always hard.
Like, I had this little kid that I had then been leaving.
I felt like when I'd come back, she was angry at me.
Like, I didn't… I hadn't had enough time with her.
- [exhales emotionally] - [commentary in distance]
That's hard.
The time off, it was maybe gonna be forever.
I don't think I knew. I was kind of so content.
This is probably it. This is the final run. This is the final contract.
So I suppose it's a matter of knowing that,
understanding that, and enjoying that the best… the best I can.
[crowd cheering]
[Lynch] This is the biggest event that we have.
It's coming back and not knowing how that crowd is gonna go.
I will not be surprised if I kind of get booed tonight.
I feel like I'm out of breath already though.
My lungs don't feel… The dryness and everything.
I know what you're saying.
- Is that anxiety? - Yep.
- Oh, okay. - Yep.
- Will I be okay when I get out there? - You'll be okay, totally, 100%.
- Once you get out there… - No problem.
- [TJ] You're good. - Should've just left. I'm too old.
- What am I doing? - [TJ chuckling]
You're about to go… You're about to go kill it.
- I don't think they'll be happy. - [TJ] No, you're wrong. You'll see.
We'll see.
[Alicia Taylor] The following contest is for
the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship!
- We got this. - [Lynch] We got this.
Let's just have fun. This is fun.
Your first. So honored to be here on your first fucking WrestleMania.
[Taylor] Introducing first,
Raquel Rodriguez
and Liv Morgan!
Becky, you're gonna be great.
They're gonna love you! They're gonna love you!
- [TJ] Yes, they will. - We'll see.
[Taylor] Introducing the challengers,
Lyra Valkyria!
Becky, they're gonna load you. That way, it'll be a big reveal at the doors.
[Cole] 63,226.
We'll find out who Lyra's partner will be right now.
[Taylor] And her tag team partner,
Becky Lynch!
- [rock music playing] - [crowd cheering]
There it is.
[excited cheering]
[McAfee] "The Man" has come back around.
[Lynch] Huge pop. Unbelievable pop.
A woman started breaking into tears.
Tears of joy.
[TJ] She's crying. Yeah. Yeah, they fucking hate Becky.
Oh, what a boo.
[Rollins] Dude, Lyra's nearly crying now.
[Lyra] To stand at the ramp when her music hit,
what a huge opportunity.
[Lynch] It was an incredible ovation.
You know, sometimes when you're out of it, you kind of forget the magic of it.
When you're in it,
it's like you've been sprinkled with pixie dust or something.
[crowd chanting] Becky! Becky! Becky! Becky! Becky! Becky! Becky!
Almost got me going.
[bell dings]
[Cole] We are underway.
[yelling]
[Cole] Tag Team Champions now have isolated the Intercontinental Champion.
[McAfee] Big boots from Liv Morgan.
[Barrett] Lyra Valkyria needs to get over to the fresh Becky Lynch.
[Cole] Lyra trying to battle back now.
Elbow by Valkyria.
Oh, posted! Shoulder-first for Raquel.
Tag made!
Here comes "The Man"!
[excited cheering]
[Prichard] Huge pop for Becky.
- Phenomenal. - [Prichard] Yeah.
[Cole] It's been almost a year. Lynch has been waiting for this.
[McAfee] The WWE Universe has been waiting as well.
[Barrett] "The Man" Becky Lynch going skyward.
[Cole] And Becky… Down goes Rodriguez.
[Barrett] No signs of ring rust whatsoever.
No! No!
[Cole] The Bexploder!
[McAfee] Liv Morgan getting rag-dolled around by "The Man."
[Cole] Becky back on her feet.
She's got Morgan!
There it is! The Manhandle Slam!
Becky and Lyra win the gold!
- [bell dings] - [crowd cheering]
[Cole] Welcome back, Becky Lynch!
[McAfee] Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria are tag team champs!
Yeah!
[Lynch] I'm looking forward to working with Lyra, to giving her a story.
She's so good.
[McAfee] …as the mentor leads the way!
I genuinely told her, I said, "You are my biggest hope for the future,"
because I want people to be like her.
She's kind.
She wants to work hard, and you need people like that.
- Three Irish girls! - [all chuckling]
To win the Tag Team Championships with her at WrestleMania,
what an absolute dream.
[giggles]
[Hunter] What I love about it is, one, the storytelling is good,
but we're making characters along the way.
Becky is getting over Lyra.
That's the magic.
[TJ] Had to work through all the boos and you got there.
Yeah, that was… that was my favorite thing.
TJ looked at me, "Oh, they booed the shit out of her."
[TJ] They showed a girl crying.
Yeah, a girl in the crowd just bawling that you came back.
- [Lynch] Yeah! - [Rollins] Yeah. Yeah.
- Yay! - [Lynch] Yay!
And look, Rouxy, I got a title belt as well.
Look.
Is that so cool? Yeah?
You got a new belt for me.
[chuckling] You can hold it. It's kind of heavy though, isn't it?
Yeah, like that. There we go.
Look, show Joey. Say, "I'm the champ now."
I'm the champ now.
[Becky giggling proudly]
Oh, yay! Are you having fun?
As you're talking about WrestleMania sort of being like the Super Bowl,
it really starts again the next day with Monday Night RAW.
In the case of Becky Lynch, it's an opportunity for us
to start a different path on the road to SummerSlam
between her and Lyra.
[Cole] And now Lyra trying to retain the tag titles.
Already hit Raquel with the Nightwing, looking to do the same to Liv Morgan.
Raquel trying to save her partner.
Becky Lynch involved as well.
Becky driven to the floor.
[McAfee] The strength of Raquel on display.
[Cole] Raquel runs right into Lynch.
And this is the finish.
[Cole] Turn around, Lyra, turn around!
Morgan! Oh, Oblivion!
Spiked Lyra!
[crowd] One, two, three!
[bell dings]
[solemn Celtic folk music playing]
[McAfee] They were great champions for us, although it was quick.
Two women from Ireland came together and did something special at WrestleMania.
[inaudible] I'm so sorry.
[inaudible]
[dramatic music sting]
[crowd roaring appreciatively]
[Hunter] Becky, we wanna turn her heel. What's a good way to do that?
Betrayal's always a great catalyst for somebody becoming a heel.
[McAfee] The hell is Becky Lynch doing? What did Lyra do?
[Cole] Lyra's defenseless,
and now a Manhandle Slam by Lynch.
Becky, what are you doing?
We didn't get to even really discuss
what it would look like when she turned on me.
And what it ended up looking like
was me taking Manhandle Slam after Manhandle Slam after Manhandle Slam
while the crowd cheered. [chuckling]
[Cole] And another one!
[McAfee] There's no reason for that for Becky Lynch.
Obviously, you hope that they're always gonna boo the bad guy
and cheer the good guy, but sometimes it doesn't happen.
[crowd cheering, whistling]
They just cheered for me. They loved it.
And then they started chanting, "One more time."
So it was not ideal for what you want as a heel turn.
[crowd chanting] One more time! One more time!
[Cole] And now again. Becky, come on!
Are they going to favor me, even though I'm the bad guy,
over somebody that they don't know as well, as Lyra?
[crowd cheering]
[Cole] Another Manhandle Slam by Lynch to a woman who adored her,
who looked up to her as a mentor.
[Lyra] I also wasn't that surprised
because I feel like I'm still building that connection with the crowd,
and it's just going to take time.
And… and Becky, she's not only very established,
but she always had that connection with the people and the crowd.
When I was gone, I realized I've already achieved everything.
Now it's the long game.
How can I make this business a little bit better?
How can I be really good at being bad?
And how will we get Lyra over?
Well… we will.
I know I will.
Coming off of WrestleMania, so many huge attractions.
Then you're looking at, a few weeks later, Backlash.
And it is a pain in the ass to come up with a Backlash
after you spend as much time as you have to spend
to create a WrestleMania,
to create the mega event of the year.
But I think everything was either just getting started
or we had seen a lot of.
And trying to freshen things up,
you… you have at your disposal other characters,
and one of those characters being Pat McAfee.
So the thought was,
"Could that be a good opponent for Gunther?"
And something where we could lean into using Pat McAfee,
who's been in the ring a couple of times for us.
[Cole] Pat McAfee is here!
My name's Pat McAfee.
I've wrestled under the aliases Pat McAfee.
[thrilling music playing]
[Hunter] Pat McAfee is the face of WWE to a lot of people.
Pat's association with us goes back quite a way.
I was vaguely aware of who he was. I knew he was a kicker for the Colts.
[commentator] He's got a lane down the sideline. McAfee's the only guy.
And McAfee drills him!
[commentator 2] I don't think I've ever seen a kicker with this kind of hit.
You know, it's been incredible to see him go from, like,
little podcaster to NFL stuff to ESPN…
- You're the greatest of all time, brother. - Thank you. You guys are awesome.
…to, like, just keep blowing up along the way.
Go… Dogs! Sic 'em!
[barking]
[Cole] We all found out that he was a big wrestling fan.
I was running announcers at the time,
um, and I brought him aboard
to start doing the preshows for our NXT Premium Live Events.
It really is about the fans.
[Cole] And he was amazing.
And that was really where he and I developed a relationship.
Just a year ago, I was pumped just to be announced for the NXT preshow.
Now Michael Cole is putting me on the WrestleMania preshow,
a kickoff show, which is incredible. It's awesome.
[Cole] As Pat and I worked together in the commentary booth
for three, four years,
it was obvious the camaraderie and the friendship
and chemistry that we had developed.
So when we were looking for a special attraction
for our next Premium Live Event, which was Backlash,
we landed on the fact that,
you know, Pat McAfee sticking up for his best friend,
uh, a 58-year-old Michael Cole,
um, might work.
Over the months leading into this, when we first planted a seed,
Pat and I started doing a lot of things together,
like yeeting with Jey Uso.
[McAfee] You're nailing it, Cole!
[Cole] I had to be on the game tonight.
It was the RAW after WrestleMania,
and this was probably the best night to get this little story started.
[Koskey] You're Gunther. It's the night after this horrible loss.
You didn't get the best of Jey Uso.
Everybody's loving it, yeeting it up.
[Cole] At least we have a champion who actually smiles now
and has a good time.
- Yeah! - That felt good.
But you're Gunther, and you kind of see Michael Cole doing this,
it just kind of, like, brings up all those feelings of anger, resentment,
and it's just kind of easier
to kind of take it out on someone like a Michael Cole,
someone you feel like you can bully.
♪ Gunther! ♪
[dramatic classical music playing]
[McAfee] "You need to stick up for Cole. Gunther's gonna come bully him."
It's like, "Gunther? Can we have maybe somebody else, maybe?"
I'm old now. I got a daughter.
I don't know if now is the time to wrestle Gunther.
[crowd chanting] You tapped out! You tapped out! You tapped out!
So here I am.
Michael, have you got something to say to me?
- Tell me right now. - [Cole] What are… Why are…
- Why are you upset with us? - I'm in front of you.
I'm out here doing… I'm doing my job.
Hey, Gunther.
Not for nothing, but I'm not the one who tapped out.
I'm not the one--
[crowd] Oh!
[McAfee] Whoa, back up.
[crowd gasping]
[Cole] And he snatched me and grabbed me. There was this collective gasp.
[crowd cheering]
[Cole] And then when Pat came into frame, and there was just this roar like,
"My God, here's this guy coming to the aid of his best friend."
[crowd gasping]
[Cole] Listen, hey! Come on!
Tell Gunther do not let that fucking thing go.
[Roode] Keep holding on. Keep holding on. Don't let it go. Don't let it go.
[Cole screaming] Let him go! Let him go!
[Roode] Keep choking him out.
He was certainly clamped down on there, and I naturally run red…
[Gunther yelling]
…let alone if you cut off oxygen to my head.
All right, he can let him go.
[Roode] Okay, let him go. Let him go. Let him go. Let him go.
[Cole] Pat and I are great friends,
and I know that if this wasn't a story and this was real life out on the street,
Pat would've done the same thing for me.
So that makes it real.
[Hunter] Pat. Pat.
Tell the referee to tell him
that he has to keep working the whole time.
He can't stop working backstage.
[crowd cheering, whistling]
Has somebody told him that? I don't see anybody telling him that.
If he comes out of character when we go backstage, we're screwed.
I was being told literally by Adam Pearce, who's standing next to me, with his arms,
"We are still live. We are still live."
And in my eyes, fan of wrestling,
arena's going dark,
and then we got a video package or commercial
and we're back on the other side, I'm gonna be gone.
So the fact that they stayed live on me
after getting choked out all the way to the back…
[spluttering]
…it's like, "I don't know if I'm that good of an actor."
"I'm just gonna… I'm gonna be exactly how I feel right now."
[man 1] Clear the way!
Why the hell did you do that?
[McAfee coughing]
He was gonna kill ya.
[retching, coughing]
[man 2] Almost there. Almost there.
[man 1] Guys.
[Cole] When I followed Pat to the back to the locker room
to make sure he was okay, General Manager Adam Pearce said to me…
Look at me. Take the rest of the night off, okay?
I am not gonna let some bully not allow me to do my job on WrestleMania week.
[crowd roaring appreciatively]
[Cole] That started the emotional attachment
of this story to our audience.
Now they're like, "Okay, we're on board. We wanna see Gunther get his ass kicked."
That was fucking awesome, dude. That was badass.
- Thank you. - You good?
Yeah. They were talking to me the whole time.
- [Hunter] Great. Awesome. - [McAfee] So I appreciate it.
[suspenseful music playing]
[McAfee] This is our home, the Thunderdome in Indianapolis, Indiana,
and this is the place where me and my boys operate every single day.
I'm taking on Gunther, who,
when you think about that,
I should get killed.
You know?
That would make sense.
Sitting next to this wrestling ring for the last few years.
We're bringing it to the Thunderdome. A lot of work needs to be done.
It's impossible not to look at it and go, "I might as well go jump off that."
- [man 1] Yeah. - [man 2] Mm-hmm.
It's also a great place to prepare the body a little bit.
What we need to do to beat Gunther, he's big, he's strong, he's good.
- [man 1] Yeah. - [McAfee] He's a former World champ.
- [man 2] That's right. - [McAfee] Best in the world, they said.
I've had, like…
I don't know, I think it's, like, seven matches… in my life.
I've had a couple of massive wins.
Beat Austin Theory at WrestleMania.
[Smith] Holy moly, look at the agility!
[Cole] He just leaped to the top rope. You gotta be kidding me!
- [Smith] That was sick! - [Cole] For the brand!
[Groves] Superplex!
[McAfee] I beat The Miz at WrestleMania.
[Cole] And taking out The Miz!
He's super athletic. He's done this enough to understand how it all works,
but just doesn't have the experience.
[Groves] …wins his match at WrestleMania and shares a beer with "The Tex--"
[Cole] Oh no!
Stunner! Stunner! Stunner!
So this is, like, the first match match in a long time.
- [man 1] I knew you gotta get it out. - I'm gonna get my ass beat.
Boom!
The only thing you can't prepare for is the, uh… you know.
He throws those frying pan hands at you,
and he's trying to crush your sternum into your spine.
[crowd groans]
[McAfee] There's nothing like it. I don't know how you prepare for that.
[crowd groans]
[Groves] Oh my goodness!
[McAfee] I can't wait. I can't wait to…
Aaah!
[Cole] Ooh, wow, did you hear that?
Am I nervous? I don't, uh… It's gonna happen, you know?
So you can't really be nervous. It's gonna happen one way or the other.
I feel good going in.
I feel, uh, comfortable, and I feel honored for the opportunity.
[Hunter] The question becomes, do you make that match here?
Gunther.
It's… it's predictable to go out and just have the match
and have Gunther beat him and be done with it.
If we go down that road of McAfee catches the quick win,
Gunther's gotta be on a tear after that.
I…
I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
I don't know why Pat McAfee's beating Gunther.
Pat wrestling at WrestleMania or SummerSlam?
James Bond wins at the end of every Bond movie
because that's what you pay to see. It's the right ending for the story.
Gunther just said, "I'm more focused than ever."
Now he's gonna lose to our color commentator.
He's gonna have to go up to the ring the next week,
and Pat's gonna be sitting ten feet to his left,
and it's gonna be like, "Yeah, I got my ass whooped, but I beat him."
[intriguing music playing]
[Lynch] We established the story.
I am old in wrestling and shitty.
And then
just establish how brilliant, you know…
Our first match after she turned on me was at Backlash.
And every other match was such a big, heavy, star-studded match.
And then you've got me versus Becky, so I wanted to fit on that card.
I was like, "I have to have the most amazing match."
- Good? - Yeah. We got the end.
- I think it's a good end. - Okay.
I think so.
Good.
So I was a bit worried.
I'm not a professional athlete anymore,
so I try to eat good, try to work out, but I'm not doing a lot of cardio.
I didn't know if I was gonna be able to give enough
for, like, a good Gunther match.
Are you gonna look like ass out there?
[Hunter] Hey, Pat.
Take… take your time and breathe, right?
But if you're fucking whizzed where you're like, "Hey, I need a sec,"
just tell him.
He'll work around you.
He'll do something to you, get you down somewhere,
and he'll take his time working the crowd where you can… gasp.
- [McAfee] Yeah. - [Hunter] Breathe.
[suspenseful music building]
[Cole] I'll be honest. Tonight, Wade, I'm extremely nervous.
I feel sort of responsible for this man being in this predicament tonight.
[Barrett] Look at you. You've already got your jacket off.
I've never seen you quite so engrossed.
Walter.
You're gonna… You're gonna put him over on the end?
- [Gunther] Yeah. - What are you doing?
- [Gunther] I haven't figured it out yet. - You'll feel it.
Don't feel like a handshake…
No, I feel like more you're kind of telling him like,
"Hey, you're a tough motherfucker."
- [Gunther] Yeah. - [Hunter] Yeah.
[Barrett] And things may finally be settling down
in the mind of Pat McAfee.
The time for talk is over.
And, oh my God, what a predicament you find yourself in
against this man,
the ultimate destroyer.
[Cole] Come on, Pat!
[clapping]
And Pat is in tremendous shape and ready to go. Come on, Pat!
- Hey, tell Pat, "Show me a little fire." - [bell dings]
Like, he wants this fight. He wants to fight.
[McAfee] When you're watching, I'm like, "How is that person even able to get up?"
And you think to yourself, "Professional wrestlers are so tough."
That shit hurt, bro.
[chop echoing]
The chops are out of control.
[Cole] Oh no, and that one just dropped McAfee.
Everything hurts. I had welts all over me.
That was certainly a mental moment for me.
[crowd cheering]
Pat needs to get angry.
Tell Pat, "Get angry, fire up. Give me some fire here."
[music building]
[Cole] McAfee… Oh, landed on his feet.
Gunther from behind.
- Pat lands on his feet again. - [Barrett] Oh!
[Cole] Kick right to the spine. Here comes McAfee. Come on, Pat!
Gunther quickly back to his feet and right in McAfee's face.
[Barrett] Michael Cole has left the damn desk. You absolute nutcase!
Cole, get the hell out of danger.
Oh my God. That is a 58-year-old man.
Get the hell off him, Gunther. The hell are you doing?
Oh… Ooh!
Get on him! McAfee with the O'Connor roll!
Two count.
Sleeper applied!
Sleeper locked in deep
on "The Ring General."
Is Gunther gonna fade? Escapes.
And once again, the power,
the strength of this Austrian destroyer.
Pat McAfee, welcome to the greatest, most unstoppable force
Europe has ever created.
Tell Pat, "Try… try to reach. At least try to reach."
Yep, there you go.
[McAfee] And in my head, this is it. The end of the match. I was out.
Then I hear the crowd. That sound's getting a little louder.
[crowd cheering]
Tell him if he wants to fight up once, they'll go fucking apeshit.
[McAfee] Triple H, via the ref's mouth, says to me, "Come on, you still got it."
Tell him to fight up. Tell him to fight up to his feet.
[Barrett] Pat McAfee summoning strength from God knows where.
I thought back to when I was, you know, watching or commentating
when somebody gets back up. I even give one of these, one of those,
'cause I think that's what you're supposed to do.
Tell him to sell this.
[McAfee] Then Gunther takes me down,
and they all say, "It's over. Yep, actually, it's over."
[crowd cheering]
- [Barrett] That is over. - [bell dings]
[Barrett] Get Pat McAfee some medical attention immediately.
[Hunter] The win, the loss, doesn't matter.
Pat McAfee was more over in the loss to Gunther
and how he did it than he was in the buildup.
He earned people's respect, and he went toe to toe with a killer
and lived to tell about it.
[Barrett] Wow.
A rare, rare show of respect.
Thank you, Pat McAfee.
What's that? Him to fight up? I did.
- You feel it? - Sure.
I felt like, "Man, if he comes up, they're gonna blow."
- [Gunther] Yeah. - Yeah.
I am green as shit in that business.
That's why you'll never hear me say, like, "Yeah, I was good in there."
But you will definitely hear me say, "I'm fucking proud."
I don't know how many more matches I'm ever gonna have,
so I try to just take, like, one… Polaroid, basically.
[crowd cheering]
[Barrett] And a well-deserved standing ovation
for a man who performed above and beyond this evening at Backlash.
[cheering continues]
[McAfee] A bit emotional. I was in a whirlwind.
I got to the back, and John Cena was talking to me.
Here's an actual GOAT talking to me and complimenting me.
Fantastic. Fantastic.
Jeez. I don't have anything on that. That was great, man.
- I don't have any gears. - No. That was great.
- Thank you. - [Hunter] How'd you feel?
- It felt good. Breathing was good. - You didn't look bummed.
No. There was one time in there I told Danny, "Hey, I need one."
- It might have been early. - You didn't look it at all.
I kept watching to see if you were gassed,
but I never saw you where I was like, "Oh, he's whizzed," at all.
- [McAfee] Yeah, I feel good. - Yeah, at all.
- [McAfee] I feel good. Yeah. - You okay?
- I'm happy with that. Thank you. - Congrats. Congrats.
[Lynch] Lyra is kind of like my Achilles heel.
She is my kryptonite.
But I also wanted to make this, like, her coming out party.
Like, how do we show these people who the hell Lyra Valkyria is?
[Becky Lynch's entrance music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[Cole] Lyra does own a victory over Becky.
Lyra beat Becky Lynch to take the NXT Women's Championship.
[TJ] A little Irish battle. No big deal.
[Barrett] Becky Lynch continues to show tough love to the young Dubliner,
a woman who formerly idolized Becky Lynch
and basically used Becky Lynch as the blueprint.
[Cole] And Lyra punishing Lynch here
with the Intercontinental title on the line.
[inhaling sharply]
I feel like that was the ultimate opportunity, the ultimate,
"Here's the ball. Run with it."
[crowd groaning]
Becky's might be putting some heat on in front of Lyra's fiancé.
Is this your girl? Is this your girl?
You wanna say thank you?
Style-wise, in terms of wrestling as a heel,
well, I'm not really flashy.
I'm just a bit of a scrapper, you know?
So that's a little bit easier to adapt to being a heel.
[Cole] Shoulders down.
Becky tried to use the rope. The official caught her.
That was premeditated.
[Lynch] With being a heel, it's always about taking a shortcut.
When you are outmatched on a skill level,
how do you take the quickest way to success?
Becky Lynch now has exposed the turnbuckle in the corner.
We have Lyra hitting her finish,
but the ref will be a little slow to the count.
[Cole] Now Jessika Carr realizes the turnbuckle's been exposed.
She's gonna head out to, I guess, grab the pad.
Meanwhile, Becky went for another Manhandle Slam.
Lyra Valkyria has Becky up. Nightwing!
[TJ] You can come at any time.
[Cole] The official was out of position when she was doing her job.
It allowed Becky to kick out.
How do you get the upper hand? Oftentimes, it's pulling a piece of hair.
- It's poking somebody in the eye. - Here comes an eye poke by Becky.
[Lynch] It's doing something behind the ref's back.
It's taking a shortcut.
[Barrett] Clearly not inadvertent, but highly effective.
[Cole] Rolling up Lyra. Lyra able to counter. Roll-up of her own.
Grabs the leg of Becky Lynch and got her!
Lyra got her! Lyra retains!
- No! - She's gone right in.
Becky… Becky jumped… Becky jumped in straight away. I'm sorry.
[Cole] Lyra Valkyria wins, retains the title.
And Becky Lynch clearly frustrated.
[TJ] All right. Go, go, go. They're going.
[Cole] Now the Dis-arm-her. Get in there and do something!
Becky, let go! That's it! Let go! Let go! Let go!
Get off! Let go!
Let go! Let's go! Let go!
Match is over. You don't need to do that.
- [Lynch] Or what?! - Hey. Leave it in the back. Let's go.
Yeah! Come on!
I would have let that win breathe a minute before you jumped her.
Just… just so… to let them…
The higher they can come on the pop…
- They didn't have time to pop. - Yeah.
- If you gave 'em time to pop-- - Oh, my bad.
No, it's all good. Let them get there, and then take it away from them.
- Yeah. - Get a bigger reaction.
- But very good. Great match. - Oh, thank you.
- You guys have good chemistry. - Oh, she's great.
A lot of people were saying that we had the match of the night.
I feel like that couldn't have gone any better.
I beat "The Man." [chuckles]
How are you?
Uh, my hips really hurt.
Your hips?
- My shaky hips. - Both of them?
- I can't do my line dancing. - Oh no.
Happy with it?
- So-so. - Why?
- Some little things. - Okay.
- I thought it was great. Great fight. - Um, like…
Crowd loved it.
Like, I believe that Lyra is the future.
I do believe that she's the future. I think she has the right mindset.
Like, she is always trying to analyze what's good, what's bad.
Why does this work? Why doesn't that work? How do I get better?
We need people like that.
[Hunter] The trick in our business is to have an eye on the long term.
Because that's really where the money is.
It's the long term. Where are you going to get to?
- [crowd cheering, whistling] - [suspenseful music playing]
[man] I've never been through something that was more grueling
that I cannot wait to get back to doing.
[hooting]
[Chelsea] Everything I ever dreamed of,
and I never thought that I would have all this from wrestling.
- Get Doc in there. - [Lynch] His dad is texting me.
And I'm like, "Do I have to lie to your dad?"
[Chelsea] It's my seventh broken nose.
You want me to be real? This is as real as I can be right now! [chuckles]
Don't fucking cut me off. Let me get mad.
[CM Punk] It's about making people feel what you're feeling.
Money in the Bank is one of the most dangerous matches
here in the WWE.
I love that violence. Cero miedo.
That was fucking awesome. Whoo!
Can literally go from being at the bottom to being at the top in one moment.
[Cole] Cody, right through the table!
If you're refusing to hand the torch, I'm gonna murder you for it.
Take that, motherfucker!
Our job is to make you emotionally invested
to the point where you want to pay to see the next chapter.
[Cole] Who the… Oh my God! Oh my God!
An historic first-ever two-night SummerSlam.
[Hunter] You ain't seen nothing yet!
[music fades]
[intriguing music playing]
[music fades out]