Pat McAfee took an absolute beating at the hands of Gunther at the 'WWE Backlash' Premium Live event on Saturday. Screen grab: WWE
By Ben Axelrod on

As soon as Pat McAfee challenged Gunther to a match at WWE Backlash last May, the outcome of the contest appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

So much so that at least one member of the pro wrestling giant’s creative team pitched having the ESPN star pull off an upset victory over a WWE superstar who was just weeks removed from losing the world heavyweight championship at WrestleMania.

That pitch also happened to unfold as the cameras were rolling for the latest season of WWE: Unreal, which premiered on Netflix earlier this week. In the scene, WWE executive director Bruce Prichard can be seen making the case for McAfee to get what would have been a shocking win in order to subvert the fans’ expectations.

“It’s predictable to go out and just have the match and have Gunther beat him and be done with it,” Prichard says in the clip.

“If we go down that road of McAfee catches the quick win, Gunther’s gotta be on a tear after that,” WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque replied.

But despite Prichard making the pitch and Levesque indicating that he was at least open to it, another member of the WWE creative team made an impassioned plea for Gunther to go over.

“I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around it. I don’t know why Pat McAfee’s beating Gunther,” WWE VP of creative writing Jonathan Baeckstrom retorted. “[Is] 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’ and now he’s going to lose to our color commentator? And then he’s going to have to go out to the ring the next week and Pat’s going to be sitting 10 feet to his left, and it’s gonna be like, ‘yeah, I got my ass whooped. But I beat him.”

Ultimately, Baeckstrom’s logic won out, with McAfee both taking a beating and eating the pin. Taking to X on Wednesday as the clip went viral on social media, the former All-Pro punter addressed the creative decision and concept of WWE’s Drive to Survive-style show.

“I, like many lifelong marks, didn’t love the #WWEUnreal concept when I heard of it,” he wrote. “I enjoy the suspension of belief and the magic of escape thru professional wrestling. I thought that would get ruined for the next generation of fans.. TBD but, I have a funny suspicion that professional wrestling is always gonna be a-ok.. when it’s done right, there’s not much better ENTERTAINMENT.

“What I’ve realized is I’ve actually enjoyed learning how the sausage is actually made.. I hope the show does good for the business.

“I’m thankful I’ll be able to show my kids and grandkids that I was lucky to do really cool things.. this particular scene will probably not be shown to them [crying laughing emojis] but; the rest of the episode was really cool to re-live.”

Of course, this is the world of pro wrestling, so our guard is always for a potential work. But regardless of how the WWE creative team arrived at having Gunther beat McAfee, it would be tough to argue that it wasn’t the right decision.

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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