Pat McAfee Reportedly Chose To Pull Out Of WWE Storyline With Randy Orton Due To Fan Backlash

WWE reportedly scrapped the Pat McAfee angle at WrestleMania because he opted to pull out.

In the main event of WrestleMania 42’s first night, Randy Orton looked to win his 15th world title with Pat McAfee in his corner. However, close to the end of the match, ‘The Viper’ hit his supposed ally with an RKO, leading his straight into a Cross Rhodes for ‘The American Nightmare’ to retain his title. Now, an update has emerged on why McAfee was dropped by Orton.

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, it’s believed Pat McAfee opted out of the storyline with Randy Orton, changing WWE’s initial plans for Backlash which would’ve reportedly seen them take on Rhodes and Jelly Roll in a tag match.

“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. 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.”

-Dave Meltzer

Shortly after the negative reaction, it emerged that the decision to involve Pat McAfee in the feud between Rhodes and Orton was a call made by Ari Emanuel, leaving both viewers and talent dissatisfied with the Undisputed WWE Championship program. After Cody came out on top, Orton’s former cornerman must now leave the wrestling business for good.

McAfee wasn’t the only celebrity involved in this past Saturday’s main event, with Jelly Roll evening the odds for Cody Rhodes by putting the former commentator through the announce table. However, the music artist recent acknowledged neither he nor McAfee had any business at WrestleMania 42. You can read more on his comments here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Pat McAfee’s split from Randy Orton as soon as we hear more.

H/T to F4WOnline for the transcription.