Pat McAfee reportedly “opted out” of continuing his storyline with Randy Orton past WrestleMania 42.
At WrestleMania 42, Randy Orton decisively ended his association with Pat McAfee with an RKO. McAfee’s involvement in the rivalry between Orton and Cody Rhodes had been divisive among fans, and Rhodes himself questioned his role in the build-up to the Undisputed WWE Title match.
It seems that the former WWE announcer is all too aware of the criticism, and it has now been reported that this was a key reason he dropped out of the storyline altogether. Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed that McAfee opted out. This resulted in changes to future plans, which had been set to include a tag team match between McAfee & Orton, and Rhodes & Jelly Roll at Backlash.
“With the Pat McAfee thing, he opted out, so that’s what actually led to everything changing.
“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.”
Shortly after WrestleMania, Jelly Roll posted a vlog suggesting that neither he nor McAfee had any business being involved in the main event of the show, and it was time to get back to “what they were good at.”
Meltzer believes both Jelly Roll and Pat McAfee understood the negative sentiment, leading to any further involvement being nixed.
“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.
“I was told that the belief was that it was due to the reaction that he pulled out. It wasn’t like anything else.”
Pat McAfee Announces Pro Wrestling Retirement
Following the events of WrestleMania 42, Pat McAfee announced the wrestling business was in his rearview mirror. Ahead of the show, he had promised to leave pro wrestling if Randy Orton failed to defeat Cody Rhodes, and with the announcement, he appears to have been true to his word.
H/T to F4WOnline for the above transcription.
