Add as a preferred source on Google Pat McAfee’s involvement in the Cody Rhodes–Randy Orton rivalry was not just a play for added WrestleMania 42 exposure. According to Triple H on Season 3 of WWE: Unreal, WWE also used the negative reaction to McAfee as a tool to steer crowd behavior.
Triple H explained that the creative team needed to find a way to get fans to turn on Orton while keeping Rhodes strong as a babyface. Even after betraying his former partner, Orton continued to draw strong positive reactions, so McAfee was placed at his side to draw boos to both of them.
The alliance began on the April 3 episode of SmackDown, when McAfee was revealed as the mystery figure who had been advising Orton. McAfee attacked Rhodes with a low blow and declared that he and Orton intended to “save” pro wrestling.
The plan, however, drew a far bigger backlash than WWE anticipated. Before WrestleMania, Rhodes himself called McAfee’s inclusion “the most ill-received” decision in wrestling history, comparing it to the Gobbledy Gooker and the Shockmaster.
Triple H’s explanation on the docuseries also adds a new layer to reports that surfaced in April. At the time, sources indicated that TKO executives, including Ari Emanuel, had pushed for McAfee’s involvement because of his ESPN presence and the potential to generate greater commercial interest in the event.
At WrestleMania 42, the storyline came to a head when Orton hit McAfee with an RKO after McAfee attempted to help him as a replacement referee. Rhodes capitalized, won the match, and retained the Undisputed WWE Championship.
McAfee subsequently walked away from the storyline, leading to the cancellation of the tag team match pitting Orton and McAfee against Rhodes and Jelly Roll that had been planned for Backlash.