Pat McAfee Explains How WWE Will Change With Randy Orton As Champion, ‘When The Top Looks How It’s Supposed To Look, Everybody Else Falls In Line’

Published: Apr 15, 2026 by Liam | Last Updated: Apr 15, 2026 by Liam

Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.

Pat McAfee Explains How WWE Will Change With Randy Orton As Champion, ‘When The Top Looks How It’s Supposed To Look, Everybody Else Falls In Line’

Pat McAfee has explained how the WWE product will change if Randy Orton wins the Undisputed WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania.

The key to the McAfee and Randy Orton storyline has been that McAfee wants to “save the business” by installing Orton at the top of the food chain and dethroning Cody Rhodes from that spot, believing Orton is the better example of what a top WWE star should be.

Today on the Pat McAfee Show, he was asked by WWE interviewer Jackie Redmond to explain exactly how things would change with Orton as champion, with McAfee explaining that Orton leading by example would improve things overall as the rest of the roster would be following his lead.

He stated:

“If you’re a 10 year old Jackie, you would be excited to know about Stone Cold Steve Austin meeting you and being a fan of yours and everything, and that would make you excited – you understand what wrestling is. You understand what it’s supposed to be.

“And at the top of the card, that is what everybody is striving to become. It goes all the way back – Sammartino did it for a long time, Andre did it for a long time, Hulk did it for a long time. Obviously you get into the Stone Cold, Rock era of carrying the company. And then you’ve got Roman Reigns carried the company, John Cena carried the company.

“When the top looks how it’s supposed to look and acts how it’s supposed to look, everybody else falls in line.

“You understand what this is Jackie. You get done doing an interview with somebody, they stumble all over themselves, they’re ass, and then you’re telling them to send it back, and you’re like, ‘How the hell is that what this is?’ You say it, I know you do, in your brain as a professional speaker.

“Whenever the top looks how it’s supposed to look, everybody else kinda falls in line. And Randy Orton’s right here, this is exactly what it’s supposed to be, and that’s all I’ve been saying, is, ‘Hey, Randy, you’re the only one that can make this look how it’s supposed to for future generations here.’

“And he might be in his career pretty deep here, but we’ve got a lot of time to save the business, especially with a super motivated guy who’s 280 pounds right now.”

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Will Randy Orton Defeat Cody Rhodes At WrestleMania

At this point in time, it does look like Randy Orton is the favorite to win the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

One of the points in the build to this match has been Pat McAfee stating that if Orton loses, McAfee will never appear on WWE TV again.

While he could always just go back on that statement, if we take it as the truth, that would be an incredible unlikely scenario given the relationship McAfee has with WWE and his run over the past few years.

Plus, plans have emerged that McAfee and Orton are set to face Rhodes and Jelly Roll in a tag team match at WWE Backlash in May, another clue in the direction of an Orton title win.