More Backstage Details On Pat McAfee's Return & Promo On WWE SmackDown
The rabbit hole continues to deepen more and more, ever since Pat McAfee joined Randy Orton's current crusade on becoming the next and new Undisputed WWE Champion at WrestleMania 42 in less than two weeks. From McAfee's impassioned remarks during the opening angle of this past Friday's "WWE SmackDown" to Cody Rhodes' impromptu promo later that evening, there are a lot of vehement emotions backstage, in the ring, and beyond. Fightful Select provided a recap on this entire sequence, with hopes that it cleared up any misconstructions ahead of "The Super Bowl of Professional Wrestling" on April 18 and 19th.
As many witnessed this past Friday, verbal bullets ricocheted off the tongues of McAfee and Rhodes, with McAfee opening the floodgates with his remarks on how this business is unwatchable, and that stars like the current Undisputed Champion is hindering the experiences this new era could create. Fightful Select noted that yes, what previous reports have said are true, and that is having McAfee return to WWE was a call made by TKO's CEO and Executive Chairman, Ari Emanuel. The move for the former commentator's appearance is to create "corporate synergy" between WWE and ESPN. WrestleVotes on Fightful Select also mentioned that sources in WWE told the publication that McAfee has been figured into plans recently, with the goal of having him work through WrestleMania.
As far as Triple H's role in all of this, Fightful clarified that the chief content officer still has a very strong say in how these programs are operated creatively, noting that he still leads the week-to-week creative and the vast majority of the program. However, BodySlam+ mentioned in its recent reports that Rhodes coming out to address the matters of McAfee and TKO were similar to the thoughts and feelings that the Undisputed Champion and some of WWE's creative team have backstage, as they're frustrated with TKO "sticking their nose in storylines close to WrestleMania" for some time now.
Regarding the most important population of this entire thing, the fans, and their responses to this – with 57,000 to 70,000 downvotes within 24 hours after McAfee's appearance was uploaded to WWE's YouTube channel – the Stamford-based promotion is well aware of these negative reactions. The feeling backstage is a mixed bag. While some are chalking this up as "heat," others have said that this wasn't the kind of heat the company needed leading up to its biggest event of the year.