As Sportskeeda documented, Triple H opened up about the status of two absent NXT superstars during a recent media call. “The Game” was asked to talk about Velveteen Dream and Pat McAfee, both of whom were taken off television last year in seemingly controversial fashion. According to the Hall of Famer, however, they’re both still going to be featured in WWE’s plans.
Triple H revealed that Dream has encountered some physical setbacks, but confirmed that the polarizing performer has been training at the Performance Center and is very much “still on the roster.”
Some fans and pundits believed that the young superstar has been kept off television due to the fallout surrounding his misconduct allegations.
While WWE management claimed that they didn’t find enough evidence to discipline him in regard to the allegations, there were calls for Dream to be fired when he came back towards the end of 2020.
As Ringside News pointed out, some fans even started a petition to have him fired. However, the sports entertainment promotion stuck by him, though there were reports of him having backstage heat among his peers.
Triple H even went as far to call the performer immature and hinted that he’d fallen out of favor last October.
McAfee, meanwhile, was supposedly fired by the company on Christmas Day and he learned about it via social media. However, Triple H’s words suggested that it was all a work and the media personality took time off to focus on his main career.
“His learning about his firing on air was greatly exaggerated. But Pat, he’s a busy dude and we’ve been talking about it and he had said ‘gimme a moment to breathe when the Superbowl is over’ because he got married not that long ago… I think he just needed to take a breather. He loves it, and that’s the one thing that I love about Pat.”
McAfee’s hiatus coincided with what seemed to be the start of big storyline plans for him on the black-and-gold brand’s weekly show. He had recently formed his own heel faction and cemented himself as one of the top stars on the brand.
Now that the Superbowl is over, it may only be a matter of time until McAfee returns to the squared circle. It’s also worth noting that he was never signed to a full-time WWE contract, so it’s likely that he’ll always make on and off appearances as long as he’s involved in wrestling.
