Pat McAfee praises former WWE champion turned producer

WWE Superstars are often transitioned into behind-the-scenes roles once their in-ring careers are winding down. The company has trained several notable stars as producers in recent years, and now Pat McAfee is giving a former champion his flowers.

Robert Roode's pro wrestling journey began in 1998. After 12 successful years with TNA, the Canadian grappler joined WWE in April 2016. He would go on to win the NXT Championship and the United States Championship, among other titles. The former Beer Money member underwent neck fusion surgery in September 2022 and again in May 2023. He began transitioning to the role of a backstage match producer in the summer of 2023 after shadowing Jamie Noble. Roode revealed months ago that he was medically cleared to compete, but essentially retired as he was unable to make a full-time ring return.

The Glorious One has produced matches for RAW and premium live events for almost a year now, with the occasional gig at SmackDown. Roode took to his Instagram stories this week and shared a backstage photo of Pat McAfee. The red brand commentator re-posted the image to his feed today, and captioned it with praise for The It-Factor of Professional Wrestling.

"This man is absolutely... GLORIOUS," Pat McAfee wrote with the photo below.

Screenshot of post from Pat McAfee and Robert Roode (Photo credit: Pat McAfee on Instagram)

Roode produced just one match on Monday's SummerSlam go-home edition of RAW, according to Fightful Select. He and Adam Pearce booked Sami Zayn vs. Dominik Mysterio. Last week's red brand saw Roode produce the segment with Chad Gable and The Wyatt Sicks, plus The Final Testament vs. Akira Tozawa and Otis. The 48-year-old also joined Jason Jordan in producing Zayn and Jey Uso vs. The Judgment Day last week.

The end of Robert Roode's WWE in-ring career

Robert Roode has wrestled more than 1600 matches in his 26-year career. His run includes more than 900 matches with TNA and close to 550 bouts with WWE.

The Natural has not wrestled since losing to Omos on June 25, 2022, at a non-televised WWE live event in Amarillo, Texas. He underwent his first of two-neck fusion operations three months later. Before the loss to The Nigerian Giant, Roode lost seven straight non-televised matches to Veer Mahaan.

The former TNA World Heavyweight Champion worked his last WWE TV match on the final SmackDown before WrestleMania 38. He was part of Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, won by Madcap Moss.

Roode's last televised singles match was an NXT loss to Bron Breakker on March 22, 2022, which came one day after his final RAW match, where he and The Miz were defeated by The Mysterios.