Tag: Randy Orton

Pat McAfee was first choice for WWE WrestleMania 42 angle, more details emerge as to why

Posted on by Josh Nason

While some fans weren’t thrilled with the reveal of Pat McAfee as the mystery confidante to Randy Orton on this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown, there is some new information out Monday as how it came together and why.

On Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that the ESPN sports talk host and occasional WWE broadcaster was “the first choice” for the spot and that it came directly from TKO head and McAfee agent Ari Emanuel. However, McAfee turned down the offer at first.

“That’s where it came from. They wanted celebrity involvement. Originally from what I was told, Pat McAfee was the choice and he turned it down. Then, they were scrambling to get somebody else in the spot, and then, obviously, they were able to make a deal with him. So he did it and he was there,” Meltzer said.

That follows reporting from both PWInsider and Fightful that said Emanuel was involved and that the deal was done for “corporate synergy” purposes between WWE and ESPN.

McAfee attacked Cody Rhodes on Friday’s SmackDown during a segment with Orton, then cutting a promo in which he referenced a record-low SmackDown rating (apparently talking about Cagematch data), that WrestleMania 42 still had tickets left, and that he and Orton were going to save the wrestling business.

“This was not a WWE creative move. This was not a Paul Levesque move. It came over their heads and there’s a lot of people not happy about it at all. One person told me it was the single most counterproductive thing the company has done in a long time, but there you go,” Meltzer said.

As referenced earlier, McAfee’s show is on ESPN, the same network which will air next weekend’s WrestleMania 42 as part of their domestic premium live event contract. McAfee is expected to be a major promotional hub for the PLE, raising questions as to how he will handle his heel persona when he is doing interviews.

McAfee said after Friday night’s show that is Orton didn’t win the WWE title from Rhodes at WrestleMania 42, he will never be seen in WWE ever again.

Report: Pat McAfee’s WWE return tied to corporate synergy

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

A recent report has emerged on Pat McAfee’s return to WWE SmackDown.

The latest episode on Friday, April 3, SmackDown saw McAfee make his surprising return as Randy Orton’s mystery phone call friend and aid him in attacking Cody Rhodes. However, the segment was extremely poorly received and helped SmackDown record one of its lowest-ranked episodes in the show’s history, per Cagematch.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported that McAfee’s return was an effort to boost interest in the show and for “corporate synergy” between WWE and ESPN. The report further noted that there were several people who were not in favor of the direction of the “this place sucks” angle of the promo, and felt that those rarely work in pro wrestling.

Fightful Select also claimed that the internal reaction to the return was mixed, and WWE was well aware of the online reaction. Some internally suggested that the reaction was “heat,” others claimed that it was not the kind of “heat” the promotion needed.

Previously, Wrestlevotes had reported that McAfee was set to return soon, although the former NFL punter denied those rumors. WWE sources informed Fightful Select that “McAfee is also figured into upcoming WWE programming through WrestleMania.”

Moments after McAfee’s return, PWInsider reported that McAfee’s comeback was an Ari Emanuel call. Emanuel has been very high on McAfee as well as the entertainment space. This created the notion that Triple H was no longer leading the creative team. However, such is not the case, and the Hall of Famer is still leading the “week-to-week creative and the vast majority of the program.”

Later, Bodyslam also reported that Rhodes’ promo that happened later in the evening was instructed to be a shoot one and “from the hip.”

WOL: Pat McAfee hates WWE so much he wants to save it

Posted on by Jim Valley

It’s the Saturday Wrestling Observer Live with Jim Valley.

Pat McAfee being Randy Orton’s “mystery caller” on WWE SmackDown has elicited two opinions from the fans: 1) It was the worst SmackDown ever or 2) Why can’t you just enjoy things? Nobody hates wrestling more than wrestling fans!

We’ll talk about why McAfee was the choice and who made the decision. We’ll also touch on Trick, Melo, Danhausen and the rest of the show as well.

Plus, a big surprise at Sakura Genesis, Billy Jack Haynes news, RIP “Flying” Fred Curry, NXT Stand & Deliver, and that’s not close mto all of it.

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The Pat McAfee heel turn wanted to be Attitude Era WWE, but it was WCW 2000 | Column

Posted on by Jake Skudder

Pat McAfee was revealed as the mystery caller on the line with Randy Orton on this week’s SmackDown. McAfee, the former NFL punter turned media personality who built genuine (some) goodwill during his run as a WWE commentator, has been inserted into the Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton main event picture for WrestleMania 42. While the reveal tried to bring some mainstream buzz to Night One’s main event, it just ended up feeling like the dying embers of WCW in the year 2000.

People overuse the phrase “WCW 2000” as a derogatory term, but I LITERALLY mean it here. Confusing heel turns out of nowhere, breaking kayfabe, talking about terrible TV ratings…it was seriously just missing a “that wasn’t in the script!” line. I felt like I was launched back a quarter-century to when WCW Nitro was desperately trying to be cutting-edge and fourth-wall-breaking. It didn’t work then, and it certainly doesn’t work now.

Steve Austin flipping off his boss in the Attitude Era worked because the story underneath it was (pretty much) airtight. The chaos felt real because the structure holding it together was invisible. When it worked, the outrageousness meant something. WWF in the late 90s was the product of slow build, earned heat and a crowd that had been taken on a journey. That’s the version of this that the McAfee moment wanted to be. Instead, it’s the other version…so all the noise and none of the architecture heat.

WCW 2000 angle on WWE SmackDown

I am by no means saying that WWE is going to die out like the ill-fated World Championship Wrestling, but WCW’s death spiral was a masterclass in what happens when you confuse chaos with creativity. Vince Russo was booking swerves upon swerves until the swerve was the product. WCW in 2000 was a company so consumed with being edgy and unpredictable that it forgot to be good, and isn’t that exactly what’s happening right now? Adding a former NFL punter to a Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton story nearly 20 years in the making? That feud has history, texture, and genuine emotional weight. McAfee’s involvement doesn’t add anything to that story.

Why the Pat McAfee heel turn?

So why is McAfee here at all? The answer is straightforward. Randy Orton was getting cheered by fans after his heel turn on Cody Rhodes. There’s no other reason to put McAfee in there. WWE is desperately trying to get the live audience to boo Orton and cheer Rhodes ahead of another big WrestleMania match for the American Nightmare.

But as we saw during John Cena’s final run, where no crowd in the world was going to jeer one of the greatest careers in WWE history on its way out the door, people are simply not willing to boo Randy Orton in 2026. Bringing back the 2009 Viper version of him was never going to fix that. If anything, it made everything worse because fans want to see that side of him again. It’s pure nostalgia, and no one wants to boo good nostalgia. The fact that WWE pulled the trigger on the heel turn without accounting for that is genuinely baffling.

I’ll leave you with this, and tell me if you notice anything familiar. WCW 2000 wasn’t failing because people weren’t swinging for the fences or trying to outdo the competition. They were swinging constantly. The problem was that every swing was completely disconnected from the last one. There was no through-line, no earned heat, no real stakes. The “shocking” moments felt shocking only in the sense that you couldn’t believe anyone had actually signed off on them. Not in a fun way, but in a who-thought-this-was-a-good-idea way.

What does Pat McAfee have to do with anything? | Column

Posted on by Ian Carey

Respectfully, what does Pat McAfee have to do with anything?

Like many of you who watched WWE SmackDown last night, I was left wondering what in the blue hell the company is doing. 

At the end of this article, I have published comments, social media posts, and anything else I can find to sum up all the ways WWE missed the boat with Friday’s angle, but there’s something I’d like to do first before we get there. 

I find it’s a good idea whenever you see something on wrestling or in a movie that just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, to try and put yourself in the position of the person who made it and determine what it is about it that they thought was good. The theory is that you’ll enjoy more things this way, and come off as less of a negative person to others, thus improving your life, though I can’t say I’ve seen such results so far. 

I’m certain that at some point, someone taught this lesson to Diamond Dallas Page. But I’m sure even DDP is having trouble remaining positive on this one. 

Below I have listed three things to feel positive about regarding what happened on SmackDown on Friday. 

Pat McAfee and Cody Rhodes Both Genuinely Believe What They Said

I will say this about two of the promos that were cut on SmackDown last night, I believe the person delivering them meant what they said. 

McAfee does strike me as someone who is nostalgic for how wrestling used to be. Most fandoms have a large number of people like that. When they first fell in love with something, it was put on a pedestal and everything it evolves and changes into after that just pushes it farther away from what you see as the ideal. It is therefore bad and you hate it and the people who made it are stupid. 

When McAfee said that he didn’t want to see “two 5’5 guys do a 45 minute Iron Man match ten weeks straight for no rhyme or reason,” I believe him. I believe McAfee didn’t get into wrestling because of AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe, he got into it for Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan. 

I also believe Cody Rhodes meant what he said on SmackDown when he said that McAfee being revealed as the voice in Orton’s head makes as much sense as Disco Inferno being the NWO’s third man.  

So, at the very least, people are being honest. 

An Angle Aimed at Wrestling Observer Subscribers?

The oddest part of the promo McAfee cut on Friday is that it seemed to be aimed at us. And by that, I don’t just mean Observer subscribers exactly, I mean fans who follow the business of professional wrestling and not just the product.

For generations, WWE has been saying the most hardcore wrestling fans do not make up a sizable enough percentage of their audience to cater to and now they are running an angle that is based on something only that subset of fans are even aware of.

The majority of wrestling fans couldn’t tell you how well ticket sales to Mania are going, but 100 percent of Observer subscribers can. Same goes for his comment about the worst-rated SmackDown of all time. So this one is for us, I guess. Still though, it’s probably not a fantastic idea to directly tell your audience that the product is not hot right now, but alright.

Pat McAfee Actually Might Increase Ticket Sales to WrestleMania

Following SmackDown, our own Dave Meltzer responded to someone on X saying that McAfee’s involvement is something that came down from Ari Emanuel. While it’s been said that Emanuel wants to turn McAfee into the next “Sylvestor Stallone,” I’m assuming its also believed that McAfee promoting Mania on his podcast for the next week will boost ticket sales. 

A positive person would say that the angle on SmackDown was simply continuing the legacy that began at the first WrestleMania, which had celebrities Muhammad Ali, Liberace, and Billy Martin involved, plus Cyndi Lauper’s involvement in the Rock N Wrestling era leading up to it was also a big factor in its success. 

A negative person might say: sure, but at WrestleMania 1, Liberace wasn’t revealed as the mystery advisor to Paul Orndorff and Rowdy Roddy Piper and it didn’t pivot the story away from one that had two decades of organic build to it. He was just the guest timekeeper. Remember though, we’re trying to stay positive.

It wasn’t going to work for McAfee to just be the timekeeper. He needs something to talk about on his podcast for a week. Evidently, the story they had already been telling with Orton and Rhodes wasn’t good enough for that so instead McAfee will likely just regurgitate what he said on SmackDown about business being bad and it being because of guys like Cody, even if that doesn’t make any sense at all.

There is a cacophony of reasons why sales to Mania are down, and many of them have very little to do with wrestling, let alone Pat McAfee. Still, I think WWE believes having Mania promoted on his show all week will help. . 

So, Are You Now More Excited For Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton at WrestleMania?

No? You’re not? I’m not either, but you know what? We tried to look at the positives of something. We gave it an honest shot, but we came up short.

Below are the most common complaints I’ve seen from people online about the angle:

The show currently has a 0.57 rating out of 10 on Cagematch. Below are some reviews from the site:

“In reality, this was just a boring episode. But I COMPLETLY understand why this show is rated this badly. Out of all people, you choose PAT MCAFEE? TKO clearly has ZERO idea what their fans really want, and the fact that the Randy/Cody feud went from Cody getting killed to Jelly Roll and Pat in 3 weeks is a disgrace. I shut my TV off after this, turned it back on, saw the MFT’s, then turned it off again.”

“I created an account on this site just to rate this episode of SmackDown, only to find out I’d have to wait a week before I can rate. If I could, I’d give this a zero solely because of the McAfee/Orton alliance. What the h— kind of advice does RETIRED NFL KICKER PAT MCAFEE have to give to 14x WORLD CHAMPION RANDY ORTON that he hasn’t already heard before? It would’ve made more sense if the caller was Bob Orton, Kevin Owens… but no, for some reason, it wasn’t.”

“This show felt like some work to come out of WCW 2000. Why would you have a retired NFL kicker have to tell Randy Orton to remember who he is? Were the ticket sales for WrestleMania that bad that the CEO of TKO had to step in and change creative direction, just to create one of the worst episodes of Smackdown ever and make this into one of the worst builds to a WrestleMania main event of all time?”

Cody Rhodes compares Pat McAfee to Disco Inferno on WWE SmackDown

Posted on by Vincent Verhei

Cody Rhodes has vowed revenge on Pat McAfee, who suddenly has become the focus of a WrestleMania main event.

McAfee had opened SmackDown by returning to WWE and giving Rhodes a low blow, revealing himself as the mystery man who had been on the phone with Randy Orton in recent weeks.

Rhodes returned to the ring shortly before the main event, laying out Kit Wilson with a crossroads and cutting a fiery promo.

“We got all dressed up in St. Louis tonight to find out who Randy Orton was talking to on the phone,” Rhodes said. “And color me surprised, it was Pat McAfee. That’s like if Scott Hall and Kevin Nash talked about the third man in the NWO, and instead of Hulk Hogan, it was Disco Inferno.”

This week marks the eight-year anniversary of Rhodes’ burial of Inferno on social media. “Stop,” he wrote to Inferno in 2018. “You know nothing. You have drawn 0 dollars. No fan has ever left a show thinking about you. You were lucky to be a juiced up double-lifer ‘over with the boys’ type in an era where you hid in plain sight coasting on others’ success. Couldn’t hang then, can’t get booked now.”

Rhodes continued to insult McAfee as Orton’s hometown crowd booed him. “Pat, you stoner, grifter, Logan Paul without muscles, human hat rack, fly by night, you’re gonna get your receipt,” he said. “And boy I felt it. And I should have, you’re a former NFL punter. But Pat, you and everyone who represents you, and I know who I’m talking to, can kiss my ass.”

Rhodes then referred to his six-year absence from WWE. “Oh no, is that too far?” he asked. “What are you going to do, fire me? It sure worked out for you the last time.”

Rhodes closed his promo by addressing Orton—who, in case you had forgotten, will be his opponent at WrestleMania. “It’s as simple as this,” he said. “It’s a wrestling match with 20 years of history, with the two very best wrestlers to do it. And I am hearing it, I am. I am hearing those voices inside my head, finally. But you don’t want to here what they have to say.”

Rhodes was largely booed by the crowd in Orton’s home town of St. Louis.

Pat McAfee revealed as Randy Orton’s mystery caller on WWE SmackDown

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Pat McAfee was the mystery guy.

The mystery caller reveal kicked off Friday’s SmackDown. Cody Rhodes didn’t waste time coming to the ring and attacking Randy Orton. However, he was quickly cut off by McAfee, who entered the ring and gave Rhodes a low blow. Orton attacked Rhodes with a steel chair as McAfee cut a promo revealing that he has been the one telling Orton to kill everything in sight.

McAfee explained his actions, saying that the business Rhodes leads now is terrible and Orton was “gonna save the f****** business,” recalling the peak of the Attitude era fondly while dismissing the current business. He complained about WWE programming, asking the crowd why he had to watch “two 5’5 guys do a 45 minute Iron Man match ten weeks straight for no rhyme or reason” and also brought up WrestleMania tickets still being on sale and SmackDown’s “worst rated episode of all time.”

The segment ended with McAfee and Orton leaving together as WWE officials checked on a battered Rhodes.

Bryan Alvarez is reporting that he had heard McAfee as a possible mystery man candidate, though the assumpion was that it wasn’t happening.

“Pat McAfee as Orton’s mystery man was the guy I hinted at on WOL earlier in the week, but the feeling at the time was that it had fallen through. Apparently, it had not,” he writes.

Since his heel turn following Elimination Chamber, Orton had been seen talking on the phone with someone that seemed to enable him to tap into his darker intentions, attacking Matt Cardona after he initially seemed interested in apologizing. During the week, it was confirmed that the mystery person would be heading to SmackDown on Friday.

Myles Borne likes the comparisons with Randy Orton

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

26-year-old Myles Borne has opened up about his conversation with Randy Orton regarding their similar appearance and constant comparison by fans.

Current NXT North American Champion, Borne, recently appeared for an interview with Denise Salcedo, where he reflected on getting compared to Orton due to them often looking alike.

“A lot of people think that the comparisons started just here, that’s actually not true. I remember growing up, people actually stopped me and my mother in public and would ask if I was related to Randy,” Borne said.

“I like the comparisons, it’s funny to me because me and Randy [Orton] talk about it, and we’ve joked about it before,” he continued. Interestingly, Borne and Orton do share certain similarities, with their sleeve tattoos and shaved heads.

“It’s fun, it’s something that I like, it’s cool for a little bit, but I also want to make sure that I do what I have to do to make my own path so that people remember me and could separate me and Randy and say ‘Yeah Randy is this, and Myles Borne is this.‘”

Orton is currently scheduled to challenge Cody Rhodes at WWE WrestleMania 42, whereas Borne is set to defend his NXT North American Championship against Johnny Gargano at the upcoming NXT Stand & Deliver PLE. Borne’s girlfriend, Stephanie Vaquer, is also set for a WrestleMania 42 match against Liv Morgan.

Je’Von Evans says it was an ‘honor’ to wrestle Randy Orton in NXT

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

21-year-old Je’Von Evans has opened up on working with Randy Orton in WWE NXT.

A couple of years ago, during the October 8th, 2024 episode of WWE NXT in St. Louis, Missouri. Evans clashed with Orton. Despite losing the match, Evans earned Orton and the locker room’s respect.

In a recent interview with Bootleg Kev, Evans reflected on his match with Orton and called it an “honor.”

“It was wild. It was a very big test for me. I think that was my first major test. At the time, I think I was in NXT, maybe almost a year – either close to a year or we’d just hit a year – and they gave me the opportunity to go against Randy Orton in his hometown, which is insane,” Evans said.

“You know, OG ain’t pulling up to NXT just to wrestle anybody in his hometown, or to wrestle in general. It was an honor. I’m so blessed that I had the opportunity and so grateful that I got to learn under Randy. Ever since then, there’s been a connection between me and him.

“I haven’t talked to him since SmackDown (when he attacked Cody Rhodes), he’s kind of been by himself, he’s been a little distant, he’s been tweaking out. He’s just locked in for Mania. It’s just a phase, that’s it (laughs),” Evans concluded.

Orton is scheduled to face Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Je’Von Evans shares unlikely WWE ally

In the same interview with Bootleg Kev, Evans opened up and named Lil Yachty as the person he would like to team up with in WWE.

“In the ring, I’m gonna have to go with my boy Lil Yachty,” Evans said. “Yachty is chill, but he’s a crashout. Yachty is crazy, and he can throw hands for real. Once it has to be done and you take it to that level, he’ll take it to the level with you. Me and Yachty would go crazy. He loves the high-flying stuff, too. Yachty is my dawg, that’s my brother. I feel like if we could get something that works, maybe we could make that happen pretty soon.”

Lil Yachty was also recently invited to an upcoming episode of WWE SmackDown in St.Louis by Trick Williams.

Randy Orton says he’ll see mystery phone friend on WWE SmackDown

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

Since turning heel on Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton has been teasing an alliance with a mystery phone friend for weeks.

While hinting at a union with a member of another one of wrestling’s royal families, Orton has not yet discussed anything concrete on the caller’s identity. Recently, Orton shared an update on social media where he claimed that he would be seeing his mystery phone friend on the upcoming episode of WWE SmackDown.

SmackDown is scheduled to take place on April 3rd, 2026, in Orton’s hometown of St.Louis, Missouri.

“Likewise, man. I appreciate everything you’ve been doing for me. Yeah, I think we are good to go. This Friday, right? I’d see you in St.Louis,” Orton said.

Ever since winning the 2026 Elimination Chamber and earning a shot at Cody Rhodes’ Undisputed WWE Title at WrestleMania 42, Orton has turned to his villainous gimmick. He has since then attacked Rhodes, Matt Cardona, and even his old tag-team partner, Jelly Roll.

Cody Rhodes reacts to WWE crowds cheering Randy Orton over him

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Cody Rhodes isn’t bothered by WWE crowds cheering for Randy Orton over him in their WrestleMania feud.

The Undisputed WWE Championship will be on the line when Rhodes and Orton face off at WrestleMania 42. During the build to the match, Orton has turned heel and launched attacks on Rhodes, Matt Cardona, and even country music star Jelly Roll. The heel turn hasn’t exactly taken with fans, though, with them happy to see Orton return to his more aggressive persona.

Rhodes appeared on Busted Open Radio this morning and opened up about how the fans have been reacting.

“I don’t take it personally. I think maybe when I was younger I did. And certainly there’s no absolute in that, I’m sure some things kind of slip through the armor a bit and you feel it,” Rhodes said. “But my thought in terms of fans, today, more than ever, is that we are out there and whatever their emotional need is, if they need to cheer for you, if they need to cheer for him, if they need to yell at you — I can’t put a governor on that, and I will not. Tully Blanchard rules in terms of for me when he’d say, ‘The loudest, the longest [reaction].’

“I can’t be angry at them, whatever it is they need. If they’re cheering for Randy as he seeks [World title reign number] 15 even with the things he did, okay. I’m not there to try and tell you you’re wrong or right. There’s no wrong way to be a fan. So right now it hasn’t got to me. I’ll be honest, sometimes maybe it will. But right now? No.”

The Rhodes vs. Orton match is expected to headline WrestleMania 42 night one on Saturday, April 18. Rhodes told Busted Open that, despite all the history they have together, the matchup feels “very first-time” given how different he and Orton are now. Rhodes is looking to show Orton how much he’s leveled up as a wrestler since they were in Legacy together.

Randy Orton RKOs Jelly Roll on WWE SmackDown

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes’ story towards WrestleMania continued on Friday, with Jelly Roll caught in the line of fire.

Orton defeated Matt Cardona on SmackDown after Cardona challenged him to a match earlier in the night. Right after Orton won, however, Rhodes pulled up to the arena on his tour bus and started to make his way to the ring as the two quickly got into a brawl. Security and other WWE officials came to the ring to try and maintain order but repeatedly failed as both Rhodes and Orton frequently broke free attacking one another.

The two eventually were separated on opposite corners of the ring as Jelly Roll, who defeated Kit Wilson earlier in the night, came out in an attempt to bring the temperature down. Orton broke free yet again and this time set his ire towards Jelly Roll, laying him out with an RKO. Orton then exited the ring smiling as the show closed.

Orton took out Rhodes two weeks ago, turning against his former friend and left him a bloody mess. He later explained that when Rhodes told him to be the best version of himself for WrestleMania, that allowed Orton to let the voices in his head guide him. Despite pleas from Jelly Roll to try and make things right, Orton continued his rampage on last week’s show by taking out Cardona.

However, another person seems to be guiding Orton in recent weeks as the multi-time WWE Champion has been seen talking on the phone with someone. Prior to the main event segment on Friday, Orton told the person on the other line that he’d see them soon.

Updated WWE SmackDown preview for March 27

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE has made a couple of new announcements — and an apparent adjustment to the card — for this week’s episode of SmackDown.

– SmackDown is taking place from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh this Friday night. WWE has announced that Randy Orton will appear on the show, with the company teasing that Orton will be looking for a new target after his recent attacks on Cody Rhodes and Matt Cardona. Orton is now just a few weeks away from challenging Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 42.

WWE.com wrote:

  • Just one week after savagely attacking his former friend and brother, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton unleashed another vicious assault on Matt Cardona. Which Superstar will The Legend Killer ambush next?
  • Don’t miss all the action of SmackDown, Friday at 8 ET/7 CT on USA. 

– Though not official yet, a match between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre is expected to be added to the WrestleMania card soon. The build to that will continue on SmackDown with general manager Nick Aldis addressing the status of both wrestlers after last week’s show-closing angle where Fatu and McIntyre crashed off of a ledge while brawling.

– It was initially announced that Tiffany Stratton would challenge Giulia for the Women’s United States Championship on SmackDown. That looks to have changed with WWE.com now advertising Giulia vs. Stratton as a “non-title showdown.”

Here is the full preview for the show:

WWE SmackDown (Friday, March 27) —

  • Who will Randy Orton attack next?
  • Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. The Bella Twins
  • Nick Aldis gives an update on the condition of Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre
  • Jelly Roll vs. Kit Wilson
  • Non-title match: Women’s United States Champion Giulia vs. Tiffany Stratton

Cody Rhodes to appear on The Pat McAfee Show

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Cody Rhodes is heading to the Pat McAfee Show.

During Raw, it was announced that the WWE Champion will appear on the show this Wednesday. It will be his first appearance since being attacked by Randy Orton two weeks ago on SmackDown.

Orton brutally assaulted Rhodes during their contract signing, low blowing him after a hug and striking the champion with steel steps, causing him to get busted wide open. But Orton wasn’t done, causing further injury by propping Rhodes’ head against steel steps and smashing it with a steel chair.

On the Raw and SmackDown following the turn, Randy Orton has been seen talking to someone on the phone, seemingly following whatever advice he’s been given. He explained his actions by saying once Rhodes told him to be the best version of Randy Orton he could be, he allowed the voices in his head to take action.

After punking out Matt Cardona backstage, Jelly Roll convinced him to try to make amends with both Cardona and Rhodes. Orton brought Cardona to the ring to apologize, but it ended up being a swerve as Orton went on the attack once again, stomping Cardona’s arm that was wrapped in a steel chair.

WOL: WrestleMania build, Smackdown, Dennis Condrey memories

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez is back with tons to talk about including the death of Dennis Condrey, Tom and Bryan somehow get beaten again in a match they weren’t even in, a look at Smackdown from Friday night, thoughts on the WrestleMania build, and tons more! A fun show as always so check it out~!

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