Around ongoing tensions on U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods and rhetoric from President Donald Trump about making the country the “51st state,” there has been plenty of reaction around national anthems at sports and sports-adjacent events involving both countries. But the latest one drew a notable on-air comment from sports media personality Pat McAfee.
This was in reaction to boos for the U.S. anthem at a WWE Elimination Chamber event in Toronto Saturday night:
Fans in Toronto boo the American National Anthem at WWE Elimination Chamber. pic.twitter.com/KwCUMdEjHV
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 2, 2025
McAfee, who was on this WWE broadcast for Peacock, had a notable reaction to this on air. There, he said “Kind of sucks that it’s in the terrible country of Canada, which booed our national anthem to start this entire thing, but it’s going to be a historic night for the WWE”:
These are the MOST STACKED Elimination Chambers that the WWE has EVER had..
THEY BOOED OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM TO START THIS ENTIRE THING..
BUT IT’S GONNA BE A HISTORIC NIGHT #WWEChamber pic.twitter.com/jy8cAYHftd
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 2, 2025
McAfee then brought this up a couple of further times. In particular, after play-by-play voice Michael Cole referenced Emmy-winning Canadian/American TV show Schitt’s Creek, McAfee said “They booed the national anthem, they’re going to need to stop doing that, or the whole place is going to be sh*te.”
Of course, any discussion of “boos” for a moment at a sporting event needs to recognize that what’s heard on the broadcast doesn’t necessarily include everyone in the arena. And there was a notable “U-S-A” chant from some fans after this anthem and its boos. But the Canadian anthem, which has seen its own political discussions lately, was not booed here:
Menos mal que han puesto el himno de Canadá también xdddd #WWEChamber pic.twitter.com/RbS4YkXPoI
— LuigiWrestling (@LuigiWrestling) March 2, 2025
It’s also interesting to see McAfee be the one going in on this. Unlike some pro wrestling broadcasters who are there to fire up audiences with incendiary comments, McAfee has typically been presented as a likeable character or “face” on WWE broadcasts. That makes sense given his fandom for the sport and fame level, but it made for a contrast to what he said Saturday.
McAfee has also generally been someone who praises the host city and their fans and tries to fire them up. That certainly wasn’t the case with his commentary here. But perhaps he wanted that to go over well with the American audience watching (but not the Canadian one).
At any rate, this made for quite a start to WWE’s event Saturday. And it was also the latest bit of drama in Canada-U.S. relations. That seems set to continue around sporting events involving teams in cross-border leagues, such as the NHL, the NBA, MLB, and MLS, as well as in particular cross-border events like this. And we’ll see what else it leads to.
