The chaotic ending to Pat McAfee’s WrestleMania 42 involvement now has a clearer explanation — and according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, McAfee himself was the one who pulled the plug. Meltzer reported that McAfee “opted out” of the planned post-WrestleMania program, with the belief being that the overwhelming negative fan reaction to his insertion into the Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes storyline was the primary driver behind his decision.
“With the Pat McAfee thing, he opted out. That’s what actually led to everything changing. 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 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,” Meltzer said.
McAfee’s Exit Scrapped the Planned Backlash Tag Match Between McAfee and Orton vs. Rhodes and Jelly Roll
McAfee’s insertion into the storyline had been a decision made by TKO CEO Ari Emanuel rather than WWE creative, with the original plan being for McAfee to stand in Orton’s corner at WrestleMania 42 and Jelly Roll to be in Rhodes’ corner — leading to a McAfee and Orton versus Rhodes and Jelly Roll tag team match at Backlash on May 9. That entire post-WrestleMania program has now been scrapped following McAfee’s decision to exit. Cody Rhodes himself had called the McAfee angle the most ill-received thing in the history of professional wrestling, and multiple WWE talent had also expressed displeasure with the creative direction before the event took place.
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