What does Pat McAfee have to do with anything? | Column
Respectfully, what does Pat McAfee have to do with anything?
Like many of you who watched WWE SmackDown last night, I was left wondering what in the blue hell the company is doing.
At the end of this article, I have published comments, social media posts, and anything else I can find to sum up all the ways WWE missed the boat with Friday’s angle, but there’s something I’d like to do first before we get there.
I find it’s a good idea whenever you see something on wrestling or in a movie that just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, to try and put yourself in the position of the person who made it and determine what it is about it that they thought was good. The theory is that you’ll enjoy more things this way, and come off as less of a negative person to others, thus improving your life, though I can’t say I’ve seen such results so far.
I’m certain that at some point, someone taught this lesson to Diamond Dallas Page. But I’m sure even DDP is having trouble remaining positive on this one.
Below I have listed three things to feel positive about regarding what happened on SmackDown on Friday.
Pat McAfee and Cody Rhodes Both Genuinely Believe What They Said
I will say this about two of the promos that were cut on SmackDown last night, I believe the person delivering them meant what they said.
McAfee does strike me as someone who is nostalgic for how wrestling used to be. Most fandoms have a large number of people like that. When they first fell in love with something, it was put on a pedestal and everything it evolves and changes into after that just pushes it farther away from what you see as the ideal. It is therefore bad and you hate it and the people who made it are stupid.
When McAfee said that he didn’t want to see “two 5’5 guys do a 45 minute Iron Man match ten weeks straight for no rhyme or reason,” I believe him. I believe McAfee didn’t get into wrestling because of AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe, he got into it for Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan.
I also believe Cody Rhodes meant what he said on SmackDown when he said that McAfee being revealed as the voice in Orton’s head makes as much sense as Disco Inferno being the NWO’s third man.
So, at the very least, people are being honest.
An Angle Aimed at Wrestling Observer Subscribers?
The oddest part of the promo McAfee cut on Friday is that it seemed to be aimed at us. And by that, I don’t just mean Observer subscribers exactly, I mean fans who follow the business of professional wrestling and not just the product.
For generations, WWE has been saying the most hardcore wrestling fans do not make up a sizable enough percentage of their audience to cater to and now they are running an angle that is based on something only that subset of fans are even aware of.
The majority of wrestling fans couldn’t tell you how well ticket sales to Mania are going, but 100 percent of Observer subscribers can. Same goes for his comment about the worst-rated SmackDown of all time. So this one is for us, I guess. Still though, it’s probably not a fantastic idea to directly tell your audience that the product is not hot right now, but alright.
Pat McAfee Actually Might Increase Ticket Sales to WrestleMania
Following SmackDown, our own Dave Meltzer responded to someone on X saying that McAfee’s involvement is something that came down from Ari Emanuel. While it’s been said that Emanuel wants to turn McAfee into the next “Sylvestor Stallone,” I’m assuming its also believed that McAfee promoting Mania on his podcast for the next week will boost ticket sales.
A positive person would say that the angle on SmackDown was simply continuing the legacy that began at the first WrestleMania, which had celebrities Muhammad Ali, Liberace, and Billy Martin involved, plus Cyndi Lauper’s involvement in the Rock N Wrestling era leading up to it was also a big factor in its success.
A negative person might say: sure, but at WrestleMania 1, Liberace wasn’t revealed as the mystery advisor to Paul Orndorff and Rowdy Roddy Piper and it didn’t pivot the story away from one that had two decades of organic build to it. He was just the guest timekeeper. Remember though, we’re trying to stay positive.
It wasn’t going to work for McAfee to just be the timekeeper. He needs something to talk about on his podcast for a week. Evidently, the story they had already been telling with Orton and Rhodes wasn’t good enough for that so instead McAfee will likely just regurgitate what he said on SmackDown about business being bad and it being because of guys like Cody, even if that doesn’t make any sense at all.
There is a cacophony of reasons why sales to Mania are down, and many of them have very little to do with wrestling, let alone Pat McAfee. Still, I think WWE believes having Mania promoted on his show all week will help. .
So, Are You Now More Excited For Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton at WrestleMania?
No? You’re not? I’m not either, but you know what? We tried to look at the positives of something. We gave it an honest shot, but we came up short.
Below are the most common complaints I’ve seen from people online about the angle:
The show currently has a 0.57 rating out of 10 on Cagematch. Below are some reviews from the site:
“In reality, this was just a boring episode. But I COMPLETLY understand why this show is rated this badly. Out of all people, you choose PAT MCAFEE? TKO clearly has ZERO idea what their fans really want, and the fact that the Randy/Cody feud went from Cody getting killed to Jelly Roll and Pat in 3 weeks is a disgrace. I shut my TV off after this, turned it back on, saw the MFT’s, then turned it off again.”
“I created an account on this site just to rate this episode of SmackDown, only to find out I’d have to wait a week before I can rate. If I could, I’d give this a zero solely because of the McAfee/Orton alliance. What the h— kind of advice does RETIRED NFL KICKER PAT MCAFEE have to give to 14x WORLD CHAMPION RANDY ORTON that he hasn’t already heard before? It would’ve made more sense if the caller was Bob Orton, Kevin Owens… but no, for some reason, it wasn’t.”
“This show felt like some work to come out of WCW 2000. Why would you have a retired NFL kicker have to tell Randy Orton to remember who he is? Were the ticket sales for WrestleMania that bad that the CEO of TKO had to step in and change creative direction, just to create one of the worst episodes of Smackdown ever and make this into one of the worst builds to a WrestleMania main event of all time?”
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.