In the weeks leading up to his WrestleMania 42 match against Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton was shown backstage talking on the phone to a mysterious advisor. Theories ran wild, but no one expected it to be a heel, Pat McAfee.
The former commentator, occasional pro wrestler, and ESPN personality returned to WWE as Orton's manager, and tore into the current state of the company (including low WrestleMania ticket sales). It left fans, pundits, and WWE Superstars scratching their heads, drawing a hugely negative reaction from just about everyone heading into the Show of Shows.
In the opening moments of Orton vs. Rhodes, the American Nightmare—with an assist from Jelly Roll—took McAfee out. He briefly returned at the end of the match, but was hit with an RKO by The Viper in what proved a baffling end to a bizarre storyline.
McAfee recently confirmed that he's making good on his promise to walk away from WWE, telling fans, "So I would like to let everybody know that although the mission was supposed to be Randy Orton saving the business, I think what happened instead was Cody Rhodes proving he's the one."
"Cody Rhodes was obviously very admirable. Randy Orton is still everything that I said he was, but the good news is the business doesn't need to be saved after all," he added.
Now, we have an update from Dave Meltzer, who is reporting that, due to the overwhelmingly negative response across the board, it was McAfee who decided to call it quits on his partnership with Orton (it was previously reported that there were plans for Orton and McAfee to face Rhodes and Jelly Roll at Backlash next month).
"The Pat McAfee thing, he opted out. That's what actually led to everything changing," the insider said. "That's why the tag match from Backlash was taken off. The thing is that both of them [Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll] were very cognisant of what has been said about celebrities in wrestling. Both of them love wrestling, and I think that they realised that there was a lot of negative sentiment about it."
"I don't know the exact reason McAfee pulled out. There could have been many different reasons, but the reason that was believed was, in fact, the reaction," Meltzer continued. "I was told that the belief was it was due to the reaction that he pulled out. It wasn't like anything else. There's a lot, a lot of chaos that was going on, especially on Saturday, for WrestleMania."
This wouldn't be the first time that WWE has abruptly pulled the plug on a storyline that wasn't working, and McAfee, who genuinely seems to love the wrestling business, arguably made the right decision to walk away (his involvement in the WrestleMania match ultimately only harmed it).
Tomorrow night's SmackDown promises to be very interesting, that's for sure.