On the road to WrestleMania this year Pat McAfee was added to the Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton feud and he arguably became the main character in their rivalry.
As the night 1 main event was getting started Jelly Roll put Pat McAfee through a table, and he was stretchered out of the stadium. McAfee later returned to the ring as a referee, only for Randy Orton to hit him with the RKO. It had been rumored that WWE was setting up a Cody Rhodes & Jelly Roll vs. Randy Orton & Pat McAfee match for Backlash, but McAfee confirmed after WrestleMania that he is done with the wrestling business.
During a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed Pat McAfee’s status with WWE, and it was noted that the belief is he opted out of the storyline due to the backlash from fans.
“The Pat McAfee thing, he opted out. That’s what actually led to everything changing. That’s why the tag match from Backlash was taken off. The thing is that both of them (McAfee and Jelly Roll) were very cognizant of what has been said about celebrities in wrestling. Both of them love wrestling and I think that they realized that there was a lot of negative sentiment about it.
I don’t know the exact reason McAfee pulled out. There could have been many different reasons, but the reason that was believed was, in fact, the reaction. I was told that the belief was it was due to the reaction that he pulled out. It wasn’t like anything else. There’s a lot, a lot of chaos that was going on, especially on Saturday, for WrestleMania.”
Pat McAfee confirmed on the Pat McAfee Show that the wrestling business is officially in the rearview, so judging from his comments it appears that his time with the company is over.