Michael Cole jokes that his infamous WrestleMania match turned his wife off of wrestling.
Cole memorably faced Jerry “The King” Lawler” at WWE WrestleMania 27 in 2021, and the match wasn’t exactly a five-star classic, as Cole was a broadcaster and King was into his sixties. Cole has wrestled a few times since then, but the WrestleMania match still stands out.
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Cole noted that his wife doesn’t keep up with the product, and he was asked whether he might put his singlet back on in order to change her mind. Cole responded by joking that she refused to watch wrestling after his match with Lawler.
“WrestleMania is the last time, because of the match, that she was ever watching wrestling ever again,” Cole said with a laugh. “She was completely embarrassed until she saw the WrestleMania paycheck. Then she was like, ‘Hey, I might start watching this.’ [Laughs] But no, the thing is, I been doing this 26 years. It’s taken me away from home, taken me away from my family.
“She appreciates everything that this company has given to me. S—, it gave her a kidney transplant, it paid for that and put two of my kids through college and given us everything we ever wanted in our life, the McMahon family. But she can’t bring herself to watch every single week because she knows I’m not home. So it’s tough for her sometimes. But every once in a while…”
Cole continued by saying that his wife is interested in his work with his fellow broadcasters, but she doesn’t get into the storylines.
“She’s real interested when Pat’s involved, just because she knows the kind of friendship we have,” Cole said. “She’s interested in my work with Pat and my work with Corey [Graves] as well because I work with Corey so much. She’s interested in that type of stuff. But as for the story and stuff, she really doesn’t get into it.”
