During an interview on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch, Kevin Patrick (Egan) stated that he “wasn’t overly upset” by his release from WWE.
When asked to comment on his release from WWE, Egan said the following:
“Football was always gonna win, if there was ever a collision, and there was one on the horizon, very clearly on the horizon. If I’m in Boise, Idaho, on a Friday night, for example, doing SmackDown, how am I gonna be in the studio in New York at one o’clock on a Saturday? This was coming. I also wasn’t their long-term guy. They need someone who’s all in. Michael Cole has missed two shows in 27 years.”
Also, during the interview, Deitsch brought up Adnan Virk as a comparison to Egan and said that wrestling fans can tell if someone is not passionate about the business. Patrick agreed and noted that it was time for him to leave WWE.
“They deserve more. That chair deserves more. For me, it was time. I wanted to leave. It got to a place where I had a chat with Michael Cole weeks before, and I said, look, if there’s a thinking here that I move on, I’m good. Let’s hug it out, let’s be on our way. I still talk to Michael Cole. On the phone, when we went through with the release and everything else, I told him he’s the best boss I ever had, and I stand by that. He’s a tremendous guy. Everyone worked with was great. It’s a chapter in your life. I wasn’t overly upset about it at all. I don’t think they were. I think it worked out for the best, for the product on TV and for me. I’m all in on what I’m doing now, and I love it. When WWE’s in Atlanta, I’ll pop down, I’ll say hello to some friends.”
Egan told Deitsch that Becky Lynch and others within WWE contacted him after the company let him go. He also said that it was good for him and for the company that he was no longer there.
“[People in WWE] reached out after I left the company. I think a lot of them were relieved, Becky [Lynch] certainly was, when I said, no, this is a good thing. It’s a good thing for me, it’s a good thing for WWE. This is just a smart move all around. For me, it was a relief. When I was back in Ireland over Christmas, my mother sat me down and she said, ‘Kevin, this doesn’t make sense. How are you going to be in the middle of somewhere on a Friday night, and what if there’s no red-eye? Then you’re gonna kill yourself physically. Then you’ve got to prep for 14 MLS games. It doesn’t add up.’ So, beautiful chapter in my life. I’ve become a better person for it and a better broadcaster for it. But I’m also better for not being there right now as well.”
Egan joined WWE in 2021. He was released from the company this past January. He was a play-by-play commentator on Raw and SmackDown, a backstage interviewer, and a host of premium live event kickoff shows.
He is currently the host of MLS 360, which airs on Apple TV.
Transcriptions provided by Fightful.