The Pat McAfee build was awful, but the WrestleMania ‘reset’ was almost worse | Opinion
Pat McAfee being inserted into the Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton match at WrestleMania 42 was a terrible idea. It was such a terrible idea, in fact, that the company appeared to try and reset the entire angle on Saturday night by having Randy hit McAfee with an RKO in the closing stretches of the contest.
Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll vs Randy Orton and Pat McAfee at Backlash
The plan originally appeared to be to put Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll in a tag match against Randy Orton and Pat McAfee at Backlash next month. Our own Dave Meltzer reported that recently, and while I wouldn’t put it past WWE to pivot just to try and get one over on some reporters, I think the overall reaction to McAfee’s involvement from fans, especially how it appeared to overshadow Orton trying to go for World title number 15, meant they felt like they had to do something drastic at ‘Mania.
What was incredibly grating about the change-up wasn’t just that it appeared patently obvious on the show, it was the fact that they started a storyline and then tried to reset it at the biggest show of the year. Granted, I said previously how I felt this was WCW 2000 levels of storytelling, but if you’re going to start something then you need to end it in a satisfying way.
WWE maybe could’ve got away with this, if it was on a smaller show than WrestleMania, but Randy turning on McAfee, then punting Rhodes after the main event was a convoluted overcorrection on ESPN Unlimited’s first WrestleMania (which was already plagued by streaming issues).
You started, so you should finish
Again, I did not like how this story was built going into WrestleMania 42, but course correcting during the main event of Night 1 feels incredibly forced and a hat on a hat (or a swerve on a swerve). Was this designed to make Randy look like MORE of a heel coming out of the show? Well that didn’t work because people couldn’t wait to see him hit the Punt again. Was it a way of getting McAfee out of the way? Then why bring him in the first place if you aren’t going to pay off on the storyline? McAfee technically should be out of pro wrestling FOREVER now, if we’re going by the stipulation.
WCW 2000 levels of storytelling
They’ve booked themselves into a corner here, because we didn’t get the satisfying conclusion of Cody taking out McAfee in triumphant fashion, the heel took out the guy that was in his corner before pushing him out of the company. We now are either going to get a messy ending to McAfee’s WWE career or the stipulation will be rendered pointless because he’ll be back in a week…either way, that’s just poor storytelling.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, WWE in 2026 is not as bad as WCW in the year 2000, but storylines like this wouldn’t have felt out of place on a Nitro or Thunder at the turn of the century. Whether there are too many people trying to get involved (Ari Emanuel), someone has to take charge and just make storytelling decisions that take us from A to B in a satisfying way rather than have to throw swerves on storylines that feel like they were built by committee rather than a coherent, singular voice.
Jake is an SEO-minded Football, Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief, Sports SEO Coordinator for NationalWorld and SEO Writer for F4Wonline.com. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012 under the name Jake Jeremy. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop, The Hard Times and Sportskeeda.
Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.
He previously worked for the (then) biggest independent wrestling company in the UK, PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.