A planned high-profile tag match for WWE Backlash was ultimately scrapped, and new details are shedding light on why the direction changed so suddenly.
It turns out the decision came down to Pat McAfee himself.
McAfee had originally been slated to team with Randy Orton against Jelly Roll and Cody Rhodes at next month’s Backlash premium live event.
However, plans shifted following WrestleMania, where Rhodes defeated Orton under a stipulation that required McAfee to officially step away from wrestling.
That angle now appears to have been McAfee’s exit point by choice.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio via F4WOnline.com, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed how things unfolded behind the scenes.
“With the Pat McAfee thing, he opted out, so that’s what actually led to everything changing,” Meltzer said.
“That’s why the tag match from Backlash was taken off,” he added. “Orton and McAfee against Jelly Roll and Cody Rhodes, which Cody Rhodes may not be okay for Backlash anyway, you know with that eye.”
That quickly changed everything.
Interestingly, fan reaction may have played a bigger role than initially expected. Meltzer noted that both McAfee and Jelly Roll were well aware of the criticism surrounding celebrity involvement at WrestleMania.
And apparently took it to heart.
“They were very cognizant of what has been said about celebrities in wrestling and both of them love wrestling and I think that they realized that there was a lot of negative sentiment about it,” he said. “And they listened and they understood and I think they saw the fan side of it. And I think that that’s what led to this.”
On Wednesday, Jelly Roll even publicly addressed Pat McAfee about leaving WWE, encouraging both of them to return to what they do best outside the ring.
Meltzer went on to clarify that while the exact reasoning behind McAfee’s decision isn’t fully confirmed, the internal belief within WWE points strongly toward the fan response as the driving factor.
“I was told that the belief was that it was due to the reaction that he pulled out. It wasn’t like anything else.”
