Pat McAfee says Aug. 19 will be the last WWE Monday Night Raw he calls 'for a while'

Monday Night Raw on Aug. 19 will be Pat McAfee's last WWE show for quite some time.

The sports media giant and WWE commentator said on his Instagram story that Monday's show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida will be the "last Monday Night Raw Monday for a bit."

"I'm very bummed out that tonight will be my last trip to that wonderful WWE family for a while," he said.

McAfee didn't explain why Monday would be his last show for an indefinite period, but it's safe to assume it has to do with the college and professional football season set to begin, which he said is awesome. The former Indianapolis Colts punter is a host on ESPN's weekly College GameDay show, which will begin on Saturday for Week 0 action between Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to the daily "The Pat McAfee Show," he also appears on other ESPN programming for NFL coverage.

There is no timeline for when or if McAfee will return to WWE programming, but it's likely if he does come back it will be toward the end of the football season, around next year's Royal Rumble, which is Feb. 1, 2025 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the stadium where he used to play. After he was off WWE programing for nearly all of 2023, he returned to his commentator role at the 2024 Royal Rumble in January and has been part of the Monday Night Raw commentary team with Michael Cole ever since.

"The WWE family is where I'm supposed to be, and I know that," McAfee said.

McAfee hiatus from WWE will come as the company will revamp its broadcasting teams in the coming weeks. In July, WWE announced veteran ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Joe Tessitore would become a commentator. At SummerSlam earlier this month, WWE said Tessitore will make his debut as WWE commentator on Sept. 2 when he takes over the Monday Night Raw duties, meaning Cole will be moving to Friday Night SmackDown. The broadcast partners for Tessitore and Cole have not been announced yet.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.