Let’s just call it what it is. The Pat McAfee reveal on SmackDown completely derailed what should have been one of the easiest, most emotional WrestleMania stories in years.
We had Randy Orton versus Cody Rhodes. History. Legacy. Betrayal. Real stakes.
And somehow we ended up with Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll.
On the April 3 episode of SmackDown, WWE finally revealed the mystery person backing Randy Orton. It was Pat McAfee. Not a returning legend. Not someone with ties to Orton or Cody’s history. Not someone who adds any emotional weight to the story. Just Pat McAfee. He attacked Cody Rhodes, cut a promo about saving wrestling, and aligned himself with Orton heading into WrestleMania.
That’s the moment this storyline officially lost me.
Because the entire mystery angle was built like it mattered. Weeks of teasing. Weeks of speculation. And the payoff was a commentator.
Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton don’t need help. They don’t need celebrities. They don’t need distractions. They have built-in history — former mentor and protege, Evolution ties, a brutal betrayal just weeks ago that left Cody bloodied. That is your story. That’s all you need.
Instead, WWE inserted Jelly Roll getting RKO’d for no reason, celebrity involvement that adds zero emotional depth, and now McAfee randomly becoming a major heel player. It feels like WWE doesn’t trust its own storytelling. And when a company stops trusting its own story, the audience stops trusting it too.
McAfee has value. He’s entertaining. He’s charismatic. But this is forced. His promo about WWE needing saving could have been interesting coming from someone who actually belongs in that role. Instead it landed flat. Reports showed mixed reactions at best. That’s a red flag this close to WrestleMania.
This also hurts Cody more than anyone. He’s already in a strange position as champion. Some fans are turning on him. Others are just tired. So what does WWE do? They give him a feud that should elevate him, then dilute it with noise, then make the focus about Pat McAfee. Your WWE Champion heading into WrestleMania should feel like the center of the universe. Instead he’s getting kicked low by a part-time personality while the crowd tries to figure out why any of this matters.
And somehow it hurts Orton too. He’s been incredible in this run — more vicious, more calculated, actually dangerous again. He didn’t need a mouthpiece. The whole point was that Orton is the threat. Now he’s sharing the spotlight with someone cutting promos about ratings and saving the business. It makes him feel less like the Apex Predator and more like part of a weird tag team nobody asked for.
WWE had a clean, emotional, easy-to-follow story. Orton betrays Cody. Orton gets more violent. Cody fights from underneath as champion. That’s your WrestleMania main event. Instead they complicated it, added noise to it, and turned a potentially great feud into a sideshow.
There’s still time to fix it. There always is.
But right now, this feels like WWE once again overthinking something that should have been simple.
