Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were “characteristically causing chaos” as Wrexham AFC co-owners and nearly found themselves in multiple international incidents.
“Everybody knows when it comes to Wrexham, Rob and Ryan are very much joined at the hip. A bit of a double act,” Humphrey Ker, executive director of Wrexham AFC, explained during the fourth episode of Welcome to Wrexham season 2, which premiered on Tuesday, September 26.
Ker went on to explain the various incidents Reynolds, 46, and McElhenney, 46, found themselves involved in while Wrexham Advisor to the Board, Shaun Harvey, was away on vacation in October 2022.
McElhenney set up a prank for Reynolds’ birthday that “involved a blimp that was going to fly over the racecourse with a very unflattering picture of Ryan on it.” However, the idea “might have been breaking” multiple “Welsh aviation laws.”
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The second incident also involved McElhenney, as he wanted to watch Wrexham AFC’s away game, but there’s a U.K. law stating that “you cannot broadcast 3:00 p.m. Saturday kickoffs.” Because McElhenney is the team’s co-owner, he had access to the team’s live feed. Naturally, he attempted to stream the game, which would be “a very big deal” in the grand scheme of things.
“I wasn’t trying to create an international broadcasting uproar,” McElhenney explained. “I just wanted to watch the game. I didn’t think it was a very big deal.”
The third incident involved Reynolds, but was a bigger issue for Wrexham star Paul Mullin. The forward posted a photo of his cleats on social media, which read “f–k the Tories” — something Ker called an “explosive” political message — against U.K.’s Conservative Party. Reynolds, for his part, liked the picture.
“I gave it a like on Instagram,” Reynolds said during his confessional. “I didn’t know that would cause a ripple effect.”
Eventually, Wrexham AFC released a statement regarding the situation, which Ker said was received “OK-ish” by the public.
In season 3, episode 5 — which also premiered on Tuesday — Reynolds and McElhenney put the controversies aside and focused more on Wrexham AFC needing to win more games so the team could get promoted to the English Football League.
Throughout the episode, McElhenney broke down all the sports teams that he supports, which have come in second place. Reynolds also revealed all his movies “that came in second,” which “also sucks.”
At one point Susan Lucci was even featured in the episode, noting that she was nominated for 21 Daytime Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category, but only won once — in 1999.
“I always tried not to let myself get swept up in the frenzy but, of course I did,” Lucci, 76, said. “But every time that I didn’t win, I would take it to heart and I would go back and try and do better.”
She noted that only one loss made her “angry,” but didn’t want to reveal which one. “What we do as actors is very akin to athletes,” she added.
The episode ended with a 0 to 0 draw for Wrexham in a November 2022 game. However, Lucci left viewers with an uplifting message.
“I have always been a never take no for an answer type,” she said. “I’m not somebody who will ever throw up my hands and say, ‘That’s it.’”
New episodes of Welcome to Wrexham premiere Tuesdays on FX.
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