Randy Orton’s Mystery Caller Reveal of Pat McAfee Trashes on Current State of WWE Blaming Cody Rhodes on SmackDown

Pat McAfee made his return to WWE on this week's SmackDown as the man who's been on the phone with Randy Orton of late.

Randy Orton’s Mystery Caller Reveal of Pat McAfee Trashes on Current State of WWE Blaming Cody Rhodes on SmackDown

Randy Orton and Pat McAfee standing tall over Cody Rhodes [via- WWE]

Someone had been on the phone with Randy Orton over the past few weeks telling him that he did the right thing by turning on Cody Rhodes. ‘The Viper’ posted on X prior to this week’s SmackDown that the mystery caller will see him in person in Orton’s hometown of St. Louis this Friday. And guess what? It was Pat McAfee.

After Orton cut a promo vowing to make Rhodes leave Las Vegas empty-handed and winning his fifteenth world title for his wife and his children, ‘The Viper’ got interrupted by his WrestleMania 42 opponent. The latter was hellbent on throwing it down with the ‘Apex Predator’, and they started trading haymakers in the ring.

Just as Rhodes was stomping down on his wrestling mentor-cum-former best friend, McAfee snuck into the ring with his shades on and donning an “RKO Everybody” tee. The College GameDay analyst kicked the Undisputed WWE Champion in the balls to side with Orton. McAfee then started talking smack about the current state of WWE.

The former NFL punter said that Orton called him last month after McAfee said in a Q&A session that the pro wrestling business had kind of passed him by. ‘The Viper’ told McAfee that it wasn’t true. Instead, it has turned into something that none of the older WWE fans who grew up watching the likes of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock would like.

Pat McAfee stressed that he couldn’t watch WWE programming these days because two 5’5″ wrestlers going recklessly at each other for no reason didn’t intrigue him at all. The 38-year-old dragged Cody Rhodes for tanking the SmackDown viewership, with the show recently drawing its lowest numbers due to a puppet of a champion in Rhodes leading the charge.

McAfee also mentioned that WrestleMania isn’t sold out yet, with several thousand tickets still somehow available when a legend like Orton is around. ‘The Boomstick’ affirmed that he’s been on the phone with ‘The Legend Killer’ to convince him that he needs to clear up the mess that his so-called student of the game has conjured up.

McAfee claimed that the business that has been led by Rhodes has been terrible and that Orton will save it. The crowd cheered that bit and chanted for their hometown hero as he and McAfee exited the ring with ‘The American Nightmare’ receiving loud boos after gaining a semblance of consciousness.

How did Cody Rhodes respond to Pat McAfee’s TKO-enforced insertion into his feud with Randy Orton?

The internet turned into a cesspool after the reveal of Pat McAfee as the one that’s been in Randy Orton‘s ears of late. The fans slammed the entire segment and the gratuitous involvement of McAfee in a story that had two decades of history in it. But whose call was this to have McAfee in the mix? As per Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the TKO brass made a decree to the WWE creative for the direction that was taken on SmackDown.

Pat McAfee aligned with Randy Orton on SmackDown
Pat McAfee aligned with Randy Orton on SmackDown [via- WWE]

The report noted that the edict might’ve come from as far up as Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and it got approved by WWE CCO Triple H. Moreover, the rationale of inserting McAfee into the Orton/Rhodes feud has to do with the promotional direction for WrestleMania with the two-night wrestling spectacle streaming live on ESPN, a platform where McAfee has a massive face value.

BodySlam also came up on the same lines in their reporting in which it was outright mentioned that Ari Emanuel considers Pat McAfee a star that’ll elevate the rivalry between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. It added that TKO executives firmly trust mainstream figures to bring more eyeballs on the WWE product and augment the lacking ticket sales for WrestleMania 42. Rhodes cut a very interesting and fiery promo in response to McAfee aligning himself with Orton earlier in the night on SmackDown.

He mocked McAfee’s absurd reveal as the mystery caller of Orton by comparing it to if Scott Hall and Kevin Nash would’ve brought in Disco Inferno as the third member of the nWo instead of Hulk Hogan. Calling McAfee a rat hack and a Logan Paul without the muscles, Rhodes asked him and everyone that he represented to kiss his bu*t.

It was heavily suspected to be a dig at TKO officials for their unsolicited meddling in a wrestling-centric feud that now has those corporate fingerprints all over it. ‘The QB1’ wondered if they’re going to fire him for what he said.

He also referenced the interaction he had with Stephanie McMahon on Raw this past Monday, where McMahon implored Rhodes to channel his darker side in order to beat this diabolical version of Orton.

‘The Prodigal Son’ affirmed that he does hear her argument, but he didn’t know how to be the bad guy when he was at such a point in his life where he had a beautiful family and a dream job at WWE in front of the fans. Rhodes lashed out at McAfee’s claim of the former AEW EVP tanking this business by citing how he’s been in the main events of the past three WrestleManias, shattering all-time gate records.

And while he was wrestling names like Roman Reigns, John Cena, and even The Rock, they were also wrestling him. At last, Rhodes stressed his match with Orton was supposed to be worth 20 years of history to tell the necessary story with two of the best wrestlers duking it out. He concluded by saying that he is finally listening to the voices in his head, but nobody might want to hear what they say.

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