Pat McAfee shoots on the state of WWE after being revealed as Randy Orton’s mystery phone caller
The April 3rd 2026 edition of WWE SmackDown opened with a confrontation between WWE champion Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. After being revealed as Orton’s mystery phone caller, Pat McAfee gave Cody a low blow. McAfee then said the following in a promo…
“You might wonder why I’m here. Why? I just kicked Cody Rhodes directly in the balls. About a month ago, I was doing a Q&A and I was asked when I was going to return to the WWE, and I said that I thought the business had passed me by. This business that I loved since I was a kid, I could no longer watch. I thought it was absolute sh*t. Randy called me. He said the business did not pass you by. It’s just gone in a direction that none of us like.
I thought to myself, who is ‘us,’ Randy Orton?
He talked about the forgotten WWE fans—the Attitude Era fans. The fans that put the company on their back to launch it into the multibillion-dollar universe that it is now.
Why, when I turn on WWE TV, do I have to watch two 5’5” guys doing a 45-minute Iron Man match ten weeks straight for no rhyme or reason when Randy Orton is around?
Tickets to WrestleMania are still somehow available when Randy Orton is around.
SmackDown, fresh off the worst-rated episode of all time, has a puppet for a champion—a man who represents everything we hate.
What I’m saying is, Cody, I’m the one on the phone telling Randy Orton he needs to kill everything—and it’s not just for the 15th world title. It’s because the business you are leading is terrible.
He is going to save the f*cking business!”