{"id":156777,"date":"2026-04-03T20:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=156777"},"modified":"2026-04-06T21:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:57:44","slug":"pat-mcafee-returns-to-wwe-on-smackdown-aligns-with-main-eventer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/03\/pat-mcafee-returns-to-wwe-on-smackdown-aligns-with-main-eventer\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee Returns to WWE on SmackDown, Aligns with Main-Eventer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pat McAfee has returned to WWE on SmackDown<\/a>, and he was a big difference-maker. Randy Orton, in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, would run down Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, and the two would get into it. Suddenly, a man in sunglasses and an “RKO Everybody” shirt waltzes into the ring and delivers a low blow to Cody Rhodes, and that man is none other than Pat McAfee.<\/p>\n

With Cody Rhodes lying on the ground, Pat McAfee confirmed he was the man on the phone, and he explained why. McAfee was sick of the business, seeing “5’5 stars” go 10 weeks straight on WWE TV, and he had a huge problem with that. Why are stars that are less imposing than Randy Orton getting featured heavily on WWE, while the “business is floundering,” While WrestleMania 42<\/a> still has tickets available?<\/p>\n

McAfee thought the business he loved had passed him by. However, he realized that when guys like Randy Orton still exist, they can get back the “golden era” where The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and others reigned supreme. The professional wrestling business was at its highest ever.<\/p>\n

McAfee reiterated that he was the one guiding Randy Orton through all this, instructing him to “kill everything.” The mission is clear when it comes to Randy Orton and Pat McAfee, and that’s to destroy and rebuild the business that Cody Rhodes has headed for the past three or four years.<\/p>\n

We haven’t seen Pat McAfee since he made a surprise commentary appearance at Wrestlepalooza late in 2025. Now, Pat McAfee is leading the charge<\/a> against Cody Rhodes, helping Randy Orton not only reclaim the Undisputed WWE Championship but also mold the business back into its glory days.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

WWE Universe, two weeks away from WrestleMania 42 live from Las Vegas, Nevada, another huge development gas struck us. As Wade Barrett put it, one of the biggest shockers on the Road to WrestleMania 42 just happened before us. Randy Orton and Pat McAfee would drive off, saying they would “Save the Business.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pat McAfee has returned to WWE on SmackDown, and he was a big difference-maker. Randy Orton, in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, would run down Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, and the two would get into it. Suddenly, a man in sunglasses and an “RKO Everybody” shirt waltzes into the ring and delivers a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":156780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[4714,58,9655],"class_list":["post-156777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-randy-orton","tag-wwe-wrestlemania-42"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156777"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157247,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156777\/revisions\/157247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}