REVEALED: Why The Pat McAfee/Randy Orton Angle Was Scrapped At WWE WrestleMania 42

WWE scrapping the angle involving Pat McAfee and Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42 was ultimately done because McAfee "opted out." The belief is he did so due to the negative reaction to the former NFL punter's unveiling as Orton's mystery caller.

That is according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, who said:

"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 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… 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."

Pat McAfee was unveiled as Randy Orton's mystery caller on the April 3 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, just two weeks before WrestleMania 42 and Orton's Undisputed WWE Championship match with Cody Rhodes.

McAfee's insertion into the programme was reportedly a decision by TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and not WWE creative. The original plan was for McAfee to be in Orton's corner and Jelly Roll to be in Rhodes' corner at WrestleMania 42, which would then lead to Pat McAfee & Randy Orton vs. Jelly Roll & Cody Rhodes at Backlash on May 9.

The angle received a furious backlash from WWE fans, however, and WWE wrestlers were reportedly unhappy about the angle as well, with Cody Rhodes even calling it the most ill-received thing in pro wrestling history.

McAfee was in Orton's corner at WrestleMania, but he was quickly taken out of the match following a Cross Rhodes from Cody Rhodes and an Elbow Drop through the announce table from Jelly Roll. When McAfee returned for the finish in a referee shirt, he failed to count the winning pinfall for Orton, which resulted in Orton hitting him with an RKO before Cody laid out his opponent with another Cross Rhodes for the win.

McAfee announced ahead of WrestleMania 42 that he would leave pro wrestling if Randy Orton didn't win the Undisputed WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes on April 18. As Orton did not do so - in a change from what was originally scheduled to take place at WrestleMania - McAfee announced on Monday that he was finished with pro wrestling.

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