The following contest is … one of the strangest we’ve seen in pro wrestling in a while.
WrestleMania 42 is a few weeks away, and a surprise entrant has inserted himself into the Las Vegas action — and I’m only tangentially talking about Pat McAfee, the former NFL punter-turned-podcaster and part-time Monday Night Raw commentator.
On Friday night’s SmackDown, longtime WWE Superstar Randy Orton’s secret adviser putting even more voices in his head was revealed to be none other than McAfee, for some reason. For many fans, it felt out of left field, to borrow an analogy from a legitimate sports competition. Orton and McAfee don’t seem to share any particularly meaningful connection and they generally don’t even work on the same WWE show. In wrestling parlance, McAfee wasn’t even a heel until the reveal — a turn — he worked as Raw‘s babyface announcer. But McAfee is (storyline) guiding Orton’s wicked attempt to take down the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, the company’s top face, in the (first) main event of WrestleMania 42.
Per promotional materials, McAfee will be in Orton’s corner on Saturday, April 18. (WrestleMania 42 both continues and concludes the following night.) Consider Rhodes displeased.
In a scathing promo on USA Network, Rhodes called McAfee a “stoner, grifter, Logan Paul-without-muscles, human hat rack fly-by-night,” and pretty much all in one breath.
“You and everyone who represents you, and I know who I’m talking to, can kiss my ass,” Rhodes added. “Oh no, was that too far? What are gonna do, fire me? It sure worked out for you the last time!”
Speaking of talent WWE has fired and later brought back, CM Punk.
Though the World Heavyweight Champion Punk, who is on the Raw roster, has nothing to do with the Rhodes-Orton match, he also took exception to McAfee’s sudden and unexpected involvement.
On Monday’s Raw, WWE’s flagship weekly show now on Netflix, Punk called McAfee “Pat MAGA-Fee,” a reference to McAfee’s perceived political leanings. (McAfee, a former WWE wrestler, says he’s apolitical, but also has a relationship with President Trump that included a November 2025 interview. Trump also personally granted McAfee’s request to podcast from the White House’s South Lawn.)
“You buggy-whip-armed, no-brain hillbilly,” Punk said of McAfee. “You think you can come here to the business — my business — of pro wrestling — and run your mouth? Well, you just wrote a check that your narrow ass can’t cash.”
In character, McAfee essentially called the state of the competition unwatchable, hence the slow ticket sales for WrestleMania. (This was after he kicked Rhodes in the balls, and before Rhodes returned to rip McAfee and his reps.)
“You want to talk about ticket sales?” Punk continued. “Do me a favor. Call up that agent that was foolish enough to shoehorn you into this business and this show and tell him to lower the ticket prices.”
Both Punk and Rhodes were seemingly referring to McAfee’s agent Ari Emanuel. A February Bloomberg report stated that Emanuel “is trying to turn Pat McAfee into the next Sylvester Stallone,” which appropriately includes a four-episode arc on Tulsa King, the Taylor Sheridan show that stars (the real) Stallone. It’s a two-way relationship: McAfee produces Emanuel’s own podcast, Rushmore.
Emanuel is not just a super-agent — one that could conceivably turn a kickoff specialist into a top action star — these days. He is president of TKO, the publicly traded company formed by the 2023 merging of WWE with UFC. Forget The Rock’s 2024 persona — Emanuel is the real “Final Boss” here.
The Hollywood Reporter attempted to reach Emanuel, but did not get an immediate response from TKO’s corporate communications.
(L-R) Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton do battle during SmackDown at Enterprise Center on April 3, 2026 in St Louis, Missouri.
Georgiana Dallas/WWE/Getty Images
Slow WrestleMania 42 ticket sales (thus far) has been of concern, with high prices mostly to blame. WrestleTix data shows the box office is off pace by about 19 percent when compared with WrestleMania 41, which was also in Vegas.
At the risk of being labeled a “mark” (a disparaging term for buying into pro wrestling storylines hook, line and sinker), the conspiracy theory here, the one Rhodes and Punk are peddling, is that Emanuel pushed WWE creative to insert McAfee into a WrestleMania main event by any means necessary. Simon Miller, a pro wrestling analyst for WhatCulture.com and an independent professional wrestler in the U.K., sees it.
“I think it really did come down to Ari wanting Pat on TV because he thinks he’d be a good character, and [Ari] wants celebrity involvement in one of the main events,” Miller told THR. “I can see WWE creative being like, ‘We cannot put a celebrity in CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns… CM Punk especially would be like, ‘Fuck off.’”
That certainly sounds like Punk.
Right around this point in any story about professional wrestling, the writer needs to acknowledge that he or she understands that pro wrestling is (mostly) scripted and the match outcomes are predetermined. This could all simply be the original WWE creative plan; Cody Rhodes (real name Cody Runnels) and CM Punk (real name Phil Brooks) are characters, after all. Or it could be some of the company’s top talkers going rogue out of legitimate frustration with what they believe to be an undeserved push from the suits. In wrestling, the truth typically ends up being a bit of both.
