Backstage Update on Pat McAfee’s Surprise WWE Return & Aligning with Randy Orton

As noted before, Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri featured Pat McAfee making a surprise return appearance to WWE and turning heel on Cody Rhodes. McAfee aligned himself with Orton and gave a promo insulting the current WWE product and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and claimed that Orton would save the wrestling business once he wins the title at WrestleMania 42.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the current belief that the decision for McAfee’s return and aligning him with Orton was an edict that came from WWE’s parent company TKO Group. Johnson reported that this idea is not believed to have come from within WWE’s creative team but it was approved by WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

In regards to the person who made the decision for McAfee’s return, Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that they believed it may have came as far up as TKO CEO Ari Emanuel.

In response to a fan question on Twitter, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that his sources confirmed that the decision was Emanuel’s call.