{"id":646216,"date":"2026-05-04T01:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646216\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T01:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:42:07","slug":"pat-mcafee-wwe-exit-scrapped-backlash-main-event-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646216\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee WWE Exit Scrapped Backlash Main Event Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Pat McAfee pulling out didn\u2019t just tweak WrestleMania \u2014 it blew up WWE\u2019s next main event and cut short a long-term plan.<\/p>\n<p>New details from Dave Meltzer and Billi Bhatti show McAfee\u2019s decision forced WWE to scrap a planned Backlash tag match and rethink everything tied to Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton. Meltzer made it clear that once McAfee stepped away, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringsidenews.com\/pat-mcafee-opted-out-wrestlemania-plans-backlash-fans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the dominoes started falling immediately<\/a> \u2014 including the Backlash main event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the Pat McAfee thing, he opted out. That\u2019s what actually led to everything changing. That\u2019s why the tag match from Backlash was taken off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed to fan reaction as the driving force, noting both McAfee and Jelly Roll were paying attention to how people felt about celebrity involvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing is that both of them\u2026 realized that there was a lot of negative sentiment about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even without a single confirmed reason, the belief backstage was simple \u2014 the reaction changed everything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason that was believed was, in fact, the reaction\u2026 it wasn\u2019t like anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bhatti\u2019s update via the <a href=\"http:\/\/dirtysheets.net\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dirty Sheets Wrestling Informer podcast <\/a>connects the dots even further. The original WrestleMania plan had Orton going over, but that was tied to the McAfee storyline continuing into Backlash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was given the information that Randy Orton was going to win\u2026 Randy Orton&#8217;s injury was an issue\u2026 but that didn&#8217;t factor into them actually changing a result. The McAfee thing did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once McAfee backed out, WWE didn\u2019t just change the finish \u2014 they killed the entire follow-up. This also wasn\u2019t meant to be a quick cameo. McAfee was supposed to stick around for months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey would be ending the storyline and the tag match with McAfee teaming up with Orton against Jelly Roll and Cody Rhodes wouldn&#8217;t be happening at Backlash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMcAfee was due to stay on TV\u2026 all the way up until SummerSlam\u2026 but\u2026 wasn&#8217;t happy with the fans reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With that gone, WWE pivoted fast \u2014 dropped the celebrity angle, scrapped the Backlash main event, and shifted to a straight Cody vs Orton story with Rhodes getting the win. One decision didn\u2019t just change a finish \u2014 it wiped out an entire storyline.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think WWE made the right call dropping the McAfee angle, or should they have stuck with the original plan? Let us know what you think.<\/p>\n<p>Please credit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringsidenews.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ringside News<\/a> if you use the above transcript in your publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee pulling out didn\u2019t just tweak WrestleMania \u2014 it blew up WWE\u2019s next main event and cut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,68936,11805],"class_list":["post-646216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-wwe-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}