Backstage Reaction to Pat McAfee Segment on 4/3 WWE SmackDown Show & Reason for McAfee’s Involvement for WrestleMania 42

As noted before, this Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in St. Louis, Missouri featured Pat McAfee making a surprise return to WWE and turning heel on Cody Rhodes. McAfee’s surprise return and involvement in the Randy Orton and Rhodes’ storyline feud for the Undisputed WWE Championship was believed to have been an edict that came from TKO Group and possibly TKO CEO Ari Emanuel. Rhodes’ promo segment on the show was something that was originally not planned and Rhodes was believed to have been told to “shoot” on TKO over Rhodes and some within WWE’s creative team being upset over McAfee’s insertion into the storyline.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that the general internal reaction to the McAfee segment on the show was mixed but WWE officials are aware of the negative online reaction from fans it had generated.

Sapp reported that some internally felt that the reaction was “heat” while others felt that it was not the type of heat that the company needed right now. Several people within WWE reportedly were not in favor of the direction of the “this place sucks” angle of McAfee’s promo and felt that those rarely work in pro wrestling.

In regards to the reason for McAfee’s return, Sapp reported that those spoken to stated that McAfee’s return was an effort to boost interest in the show and also for “corporate synergy” between WWE and ESPN.