Update on Pat McAfee’s WWE storyline being dropped | Exclusive
It was Pat McAfee’s decision for his WWE storyline to end.
McAfee had been planned to team with Randy Orton against Jelly Roll and Cody Rhodes at Backlash next month. However, when Rhodes defeated Orton at WrestleMania, the stipulation was that McAfee would have to officially leave wrestling.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer discussed what led to McAfee’s storyline being dropped.
“With the Pat McAfee thing, he opted out, so that’s what actually led to everything changing,” Meltzer said on the show.
“That’s why the tag match from Backlash was taken off. Orton and McAfee against Jelly Roll and Cody Rhodes, which Cody Rhodes may not be okay for Backlash anyway, you know with that eye.”
On Wednesday, Jelly Roll sent a message to McAfee saying it was time for both of them to go back to what they are good at.
Meltzer said both Jelly Roll and McAfee were aware of the backlash from fans regarding celebrity involvement at WrestleMania.
“They were very cognizant of what has been said about celebrities in wrestling and both of them love wrestling and I think that they realized that there was a lot of negative sentiment about it. And they listened and they understood and I think they saw the fan side of it. And I think that that’s what led to this.”
Meltzer continued, noting that while he does not know the exact reason McAfee pulled out, the belief in WWE was that it was due to the fan reaction.
“I was told that the belief was that it was due to the reaction that he pulled out. It wasn’t like anything else.”
Meltzer noted that more information about what happened backstage at WrestleMania will be available in tomorrow’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The post-AEW Dynamite episode of Wrestling Observer Radio this week is available for subscribers here.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.