Despite rumors their involvement in Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton’s WrestleMania 42 main event was just one stop on Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll latest WWE run, the two celebrity part-timers wrapped up their involvement in the WWE title last Saturday night (April 18) in Las Vegas.
If there was much doubt about Roll’s pre-match takeout of McAfee and McAfee’s distraction-causing return as a referee to set-up Rhodes’ victory being their final scenes in the story, both men’s comments from after WrestleMania
made it clear.
We’re not convinced that WWE and parent company TKO have learned their lesson about shoehorning celebrities into big stories (even if they’re working with big names, I personally have no issue with wrestling-loving outsiders getting involved as long as the stories have midcard-level stakes). Because according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, McAfee “opted out” of the rest of plans for his summer stint in WWE due to the reaction to his ‘Mania involvement:
“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.“
Meltzer added that the rumored Rhodes & Roll vs. Orton & McAfee match might have been in doubt for May 9’s Backlash PLE anyway due to the eye injury Cody suffered at WrestleMania, then continued:
“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.”
Personally, I suspect that’s a bit of spin from Pat and Jelly’s camps. But I believe it’s probably based in reality, because in addition to being fans of the business — both men had to know that a bunch of clips of them being rejected by arenas full of people weren’t a great look for their still growing businesses.
Let us know what you make of this report, and the pivot away from a big Pat McAfee/Jelly Roll program this summer in WWE, in the comments down below.
