Michael Cole recently reflected on a heated argument he had with Pat McAfee at WrestleMania 35 over McAfee’s choice of attire. Despite their strong friendship, the two had a tense moment backstage when McAfee showed up wearing tuxedo shorts for the WrestleMania Kickoff show.

Cole discussed the incident during his appearance on Impaulsive, recalling how McAfee’s journey in WWE began. “Pat and I are really good friends. Pat was always a wrestling fan. He came to one of our house shows in Indiana a number of years ago. We just started talking. He’s like, ‘I’d like to try this.’ He was at Barstool at the time. We’re like, ‘Why don’t you come in and start doing some stuff with NXT.’ He came in and started doing the Countdown shows and all that. Me and him got really close, and then our relationship imploded for a night. I’m no longer in charge of the announcers. I used to, I’m not only an announcer, but I was in charge of all the announcers. I was a VP in the company doing all of that.”

Cole then recalled their argument at WrestleMania 35, which escalated just before going on air. “We brought Pat in to do the WrestleMania Kickoff show. Everybody at WrestleMania is in tuxes and ties. Pat shows up in shorts. They were tuxedo shorts, but he shows up in shorts. We’re about to go on the air live, it’s all this pressure. I see Pat walk into Gorilla with these shorts on and I’m like, in front of everybody, which is my bad, ‘What the fk are you doing? Dude, you’re in fking shorts. It’s WrestleMania.’ Stephanie McMahon is there. Vince [McMahon] (is there). I’m dressing down Pat. In the heat of the moment, I didn’t think about it. He stormed off. ‘Where the f**k are you going?’ ‘I’m not doing the show.’

“He goes back and is packing his bag in the locker room to leave. He goes, ‘You just embarrassed me in front of everybody in this company.’ I never thought of it that way, but he was right. It’s hard because these guys are your peers and you’re working on air with them, but you also manage them. Thank God I got out of that. Pat was going to pack his bags and leave. We ended up working it out and we showed Vince the shorts and Vince was, of course, Vince. ‘They look great, why are you yelling at him?’ He just likes to stir the s**t, right. Ever since then, I think that brought us closer together. We’ve been best friends since.”

Despite the initial confrontation, the moment ultimately strengthened their friendship, with Cole and McAfee remaining close ever since.