WWE Has a TKO Problem: Pat McAfee’s Worked Shoot

This was not the article I planned on writing this week. I was working on an article about the importance of good LGBTQIA+ representation in wrestling. (I will keep working on that one, because it’s very important to me.) But then SmackDown happened, and I can’t ignore the Pat McAfee situation. For those of you who haven’t seen or read about it, spoiler warnings.

McAfee was revealed to be who Randy Orton has been talking to for the past few weeks. Which doesn’t make sense with all the hints they made about wrestling’s royal families. But worse than that, McAfee came out to help Orton beat down Cody Rhodes and then proceeded to rant about how terrible the product is. So, in an effort to save wrestling, he is going to help Orton beat Cody.

That whole concept is terrible to begin with. But then rumors have been making the rounds that this creative decision was made not by Paul Levesque or even Nick Khan. It came from the head of TKO, Ari Emanuel. According to the rumors, he believes Pat McAfee is what the feud between the face of the company and a long-time veteran need to kick it into high gear.

History Repeating Itself: When a Corporation Owns a Wrestling Company

Worked shoots were some of the worst things that happened at the end of WCW. Russo saw that they worked in the WWF a few times and then just ran with it in WCW. At best, you pop a small section of the “smart” fans. But you do that while confusing your casual fanbase, who understand that wrestling is fake, but not all the drama backstage.

And when the work shoot is about how terrible the product is? Why would you want someone to go out and crap all over your product? You have someone out there telling your audience that what they are watching and spending a lot of money on is not worth their time and money. No one looks good when this happens. The heel talking crap about the product isn’t getting heat, the face defending the company looks like a corporate puppet, and the company comes off badly.

Why are we doing this again?

Too Many Cooks

The fact that Emanuel is making these kinds of decisions, forcing Levesque to figure out how to turn chicken crap into chicken salad. Is the same kind of stuff that happened in WCW. Turner executives, who knew nothing about wrestling, kept meddling in creative direction. For WCW, it was more about getting censored and told what was and wasn’t okay to have on the program. But with the WWE, it seems like Khan and Emanuel have both meddled in the road to WrestleMania. Khan was behind bringing in The Rock and Travis Scott for last year, and now Emanuel is pulling this McAfee crap.

Levesque has a proven track record as a booker. Both through NXT and when Vince McMahon was first ousted from the company. It’s in the last two years that we’ve seen a shift in creative from what Levesque was doing before. Which tells me a lot of what we are laying at his feet may not be totally on him. The first season of Unreal also showed that he has to get things cleared by Khan. He talked about how he had to have Khan sign off on Cena’s heel turn. Which makes me wonder how many things Khan tweaks before we get to see the story unfold.

McAfee’s Complaints

First, let’s talk about “The business didn’t pass you by, it just went in a direction none of us like.” This is what I’ve already been talking about. McAfee says that the product is shit, and then talks about the forgotten WWE fans, the ones from the Attitude era. This is just regurgitating what a lot of people say on social media. It’s not representative of the people in the arena or who tune in each week.

So, we again have the WCW issue of a heel trying to get heat by playing to a very specific audience. And worse than that, you are going to possibly get people on Orton’s side. The parts of the audience who agree with McAfee aren’t going to boo him because of this. They are going to cheer him. An issue they already have.

He goes on to quote both The Rock and Steve Austin, trying to connect with these supposed forgotten fans. You know the ones, that are still played to with merch and special video game editions. And then he pulls out the “Why is it, when I turn on WWE, I have to watch two 5’5 guys have 45-minute Iron Man Matches?” Honestly, this is the line that could get heat, talking crap about the change in the in-ring product, which a lot of fans like, might actually get you heat.

But there are a few things wrong here. One, when was the last 45-minute match on Raw or SmackDown? Two, Cody, Gunther, Jey Uso, Punk, Reigns, Fatu, McIntyre, and Rollins are all over 6’0. Three, the last Iron Man match was in 2018 between Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler at Extreme Rules. Or if you want to include NXT, there was a Fatal Four-Way Iron Man match at NXT Super Tuesday.

McAfee just comes off like an idiot with that statement. Not that he didn’t look like an idiot going into this, because it was less than a year ago that he was on Raw hyping everything up, and loving the athletic matches. So, this whole thing just comes off as dumb.

McAfee isn’t the Answer

If guys like Emanuel and Khan keep sticking their noses into the creative side, while showing no ability to understand how wrestling works. Then the WWE may see another downturn in business. WrestleMania has been slow to sell. And there are a lot of factors at play there (returning to Vegas for a second year in a row and outrageous ticket prices). McAfee isn’t going to move the needle, not only because no one cares about him enough to buy a ticket, but because this was a horrible way to inject him into this story.

Punk and Reigns have been doing great work in building their feud. In fact, the card for WrestleMania this year has been built better than last year’s. I’m looking forward to most of the card, but this kind of crap takes me out of it. I don’t want to see McAfee out there cutting a shoot promo on how much he hates the product. And how he is going to help save it. That doesn’t sell tickets or pop ratings. Levesque and his team understand how wrestling works. So, let them cook, and get out of the kitchen.