News - The Real Reason Pat McAfee Returned!

0:00On today's wrestling news, the real reason Pat McAfee returned to WWE, the original WWE plans for Chris Jericho, MJF turned down WWE, and CM Punk makes a major tease for WrestleMania. My name is Phil Chambers, and I am not joined by Gareth because he was out drinking last night, basically. But getting right into it, Pat McAfee returned to WWE last night, he was the guy that Randy Orton had been talking to on the phone these past few weeks. Now, the reaction to this is mixed, let's say. But on the show, he kind of came out, what Orton came out, sorry at the beginning, it was already kind of a big hometown pop for Randy Orton, for heel Randy Orton, obviously. He ended up brawling with Cody Rhodes, and then Pat McAfee appeared, he came out, he gave Cody a low blow, and then they started like hitting Cody Rhodes with chairs and things, and Pat McAfee revealed that it was Randy Orton that called him. Now a few weeks ago, Pat McAfee said that the business has kind of passed him by, and Randy was saying that the business didn't pass you by, it's just gone in a direction

1:01that none of us like. And then he started talking about the forgotten fan, and like the attitude era fan, he quoted a bunch of attitude era catchphrases, and then he complained about all the five-foot-five guys that are doing eye-on-man matches every week, apparently. And then he also mentioned declining ratings, and the lowest ticket sales, low ticket sales for WrestleMania, the lowest rated SmackDown. And he basically was saying that what the hell is going on when a guy like Randy Orton is in WWE, and that Randy Orton is going to save the effing business, that's what he's going to do. But what is the real reason as to why he has come back? Well, there's a couple of reports, PWInsider have reports saying that the call to bring him back was from very high up in WWE leadership, not creative, with one of their sources suggesting it was either WWE president Nick Khan, or it could even be higher up TKO, CEO, Ari, and Manuel, and BodySlam.net revealed on their Patreon that sources indicate that this was not a call from Triple H,

2:02or WWE Creative, but a call straight from Ari, and Manuel, and TKO brass. So high up within WWE. Now, the BodySlam one continues to say that another source indicates that Ari, and Manuel believes that McAfee is a star, and will help elevate the program between Orton and Rhodes, and get it to where it needs to be between his show on ESPN, and the weekly Smackdown episodes before WrestleMania. Now, later on in the show, Cody Rhodes came back out, and he was all angry, and he kind of compared the Pat McAfee reveal to being if Disco Inferno was revealed as the third man in the NWO, and he was saying that they've been hitting records with every single WrestleMania he's been at, tries to fire up as a baby face, but he's still kind of getting booed in the crowd, and the reaction to this has not been great, let's say, on social media and things like that. So let me know down in the comments below what your reaction to this, but it is all tied to WWE's media strategy, basically. The first hour of WrestleMania, both nights will be live on ESPN.

3:04Pat McAfee's obviously got big ties with ESPN, his podcasts on there, and TKO really believes that big stars are going to help boost WrestleMania. Pat McAfee's already been pimping it really, really heavily on social media, and likely will do across his podcast and other media appearances that he does before WrestleMania. This also kind of explains why I should speed has been involved in things recently, with it rumored that he's going to be in a six-band tag at WrestleMania, or with where he's teaming with Logan Paul and Austin Theory to take on the Usos and LA Knight, also rapper Lil Yots, a company trick Williams last night, and it's potentially going to be sticking around until WrestleMania. So it's all kind of part of ESPN, not ESPN, TKO's wider media strategy to bring in some stars and try and get a bit more of a buzz around WrestleMania, because ticket sales are still really low. 38,000 tickets sold for night one currently, and 40,000 for night two, which is well behind where they were this time last year. And not only that, tickets for Rowan's Smackdown are not doing great either with sort of 6,000-ish for the Smackdown,

4:07and are at 7,000 for the Raw after WrestleMania, which is really quite terribly low compared to where they've been in previous years. So it is basically a last-ditch effort from TKO themselves to try and rustle up a bit of excitement for WrestleMania, but let us know down in the comments if it's going to work with you or not. Does this make you more excited for WrestleMania? Less excited? Or do you just think it kind of gets in the way of the Rondy Oton Cody Rhodes story that they were trying to tell in a bit of a weird way of just basically shitting all over the last year of the TV show, basically, is what they were doing in the opening promo. So let me know what you think down below. But speaking of WrestleMania, we are going to be there, and not only do we have our Smackdown Watch Party, a Raw after party, because there are a lot of the showing of Raw in Vegas. If they turn around that, it'll be a Raw watch party as well, but currently, Smackdown Watch Party and Raw after party in Beer House, which is in New York, New York, we're telling Casino, right on the Vegas strip.

5:12So we've got those going on, and then after WrestleMania, head straight to the Luxor Hotel and Casino, where we will be in public house doing a live ups and downs and a live podcast straight away after WrestleMania. So come see us, all of our events are completely free, but we can also finally announce that straight after our Smackdown Watch Party in Beer House, literally just outside onto the strip where the Brooklyn Bridge is on the Vegas strip. Mark Henry will be doing a live DJ set again, that's free, and they'll be doing some kind of strength test where you can win a thousand dollars if you are as strong as Mark Henry. So not only this, but Luxor Hotel and Casino, they're transforming their Central Bar into a wrestling themed bar. It is going to be belt bar, you can get a little belt that you can drink booze out of, a wrestling belt that you can drink booze out of, guys, and it's all going to be wrestling themed and play wrestling music and have

6:14wrestling nightlife and things. It's going to be really good, and they've got loads and loads and loads of wrestler meat and greets, so go check it out, the link is in the description and in the pinned comments below. We are very, very excited about this WrestleMania thing. Not only have we got four live shows, but there's all this other stuff going on around it as well. So come along and we'll see you there and it's going to be a bloody good time. Now moving over Chris Jericho, obviously recently returned to AEW TV, but Meltzer has an update in the Wrestling Observer newsletter about the original plans that it was going to be if he returned to WWE. Now his AEW contract expired at the end of 2025, so there was like a legitimate period where he could have jumped ship and he could have like talked contracts with WWE, but WWE wanted a retirement tour and a farewell from him, and that was kind of all they were interested in promoting. At one time, there was plans for WWE to kind of build their 2026 around retirements for AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho, and even though there were some teases by Adam Pearce and one by CM Punk as well,

7:15sources told Dave Meltzer that you shouldn't believe the rumors that are going around about Chris Jericho and WWE. Now there is not a lot of information about it other than that was the original plan and obviously that's not what Jericho wanted, so he ended up going back to AEW, but nobody's talking about more specific details, I assume we'll find out more sort of within the coming months, but the belief is that him going back to WWE is dead and he's going to be an AEW long term, and it's likely because AEW just wanted him to do a retirement run and that was not what Chris Jericho was looking for, basically. So that's the deal there, how it goes down in AEW remains to be seen, obviously they were in Canada when he returned, so it's a little bit skewed, so I'll have to wait and see when they get into the creative for like a month down the line and see where this lands, but let us know, did you like the Chris Jericho return? Do you want to see him in WWE? Would you have preferred to see him do a run in WWE? Let me know down in the comments below. Now speaking of AEW, WWE crossovers, Road Dog was let go from WWE last month, and here's been

8:18on a virtual signing and kind of doing his first kind of media appearances, and he was asked basically if WWE had ever discussed bringing in MJF, and he says yes, a couple of times there were discussions about wanting to bring MJF to WWE, we didn't do it, it was always at a pivotal time, and he always had something better to fall down on, so yeah that was definite conversations about bringing MJF into WWE, which I mean of course there would be, he's MJF, if he's in him, he's incredibly talented, you should be thinking about hiring this guy, but I guess at the time MJF just had better offers, and he just went with where he thought was the best offer for him, which makes the most amount of sense you could possibly imagine, and good for him, honestly. I do hope we get to see him in WWE one day, I think he'd be very interesting within that system, and I think he would shine and be a big, big key top player in the company, so I do want to see it one day, but right now AW is his home, but let us know, would you have preferred to have

9:19seen him go to WWE same as Chris Jericho, or you're happy with him in AW. Now finally, and this one is a very exciting one for me personally, for the potential that it could happen, but Punk was teasing something on social media, he does like a good tease, but he put a picture of himself up, he was on top of a legend stadium with the Luxor Hotel and Casino, that's when we're going to be in the background, and he was wearing his old black white tracksuit. Now, you also put the word radiate in the background, now the tracksuit is what you wore in Ring of Honor, and the radiate is one of the words in AFI's Mizoraya Contrae, a song that he used in Ring of Honor, now he also used it once for the Dog Colour Match in AEW against MJF, and it's also that whole entrance as a package has recently been added to WWE 2K26, now this is me wildly speculating obviously all he did was put a picture, but I did look at AFI's tour dates, and they are in Vancouver the day before,

10:24but on WrestleMania Sunday they have a day free in their tour, so I'm just putting it out there, but maybe just maybe we'll be able to see Davey have it at WrestleMania, I personally would absolutely lose my shit if this happened, I am a massive AFI fan, I love that song, I love that album, it's incredible, and I would just be one of the greatest WrestleMania moments of my life at least, so hopefully this happens, it also might just be a little tease, and nothing might come of it, obviously cult of personality, it's quite a big song for CM Punk and his entrance, but it is the main event of WrestleMania, maybe he's gonna do something special for it, you never know, never say never, so personally I desperately want this to happen again, just wild speculation on my part, but who knows, we're gonna be there in WrestleMania, come and see us at all our WrestleMania live shows Friday night Saturday Sunday and Monday night we've got stuff going on

11:26all the time, and Mark Henry doing a free DJ set, straight after our show on the Brooklyn bridge, on the Vegas strip, how can you miss that, it's gonna be a great time and we will see you there, and most importantly have yourselves a bloody good day.