Randy Orton RKO’s Pat McAfee, Cody Rhodes Retains Undisputed WWE Championship At WrestleMania 42

WWE

Cody Rhodes retained the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 42 after Randy Orton RKO’d Pat McAfee during the match.

UPDATE: WWE shows gruesome Cody Rhodes face injury after WrestleMania 42 – click here for the latest.

WWE had seemingly made a smart move at the start of Rhodes vs Orton, and got the Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll shenanigans out of the way before the bell.

As the referee was about to ring the bell, McAfee attacked Rhodes and there was briefly a two-on-one beatdown until Rhodes managed to turn the tables.

Rhodes set McAfee up on the announce table and invited Jelly Roll in from the crowd, who elbow dropped McAfee through the table, before shouting to Rhodes to give the fans the one on one match they were looking for.

Pat McAfee has been stretchered out!pic.twitter.com/cI0gXoSYil

— WrestleTalk (@WrestleTalk_TV) April 19, 2026

And that’s exactly what happened, at least until later – McAfee was stretchered away, Jelly Roll left, and it was down to Rhodes vs Orton like it should have been.

The story of the match itself was that Orton was battling through a back injury with Rhodes dominating the early stages – and then continued dominating beyond that as well.

After a while, both men ended up with bloodied faces and Orton couldn’t see, so accidentally RKO’d referee Charles Robinson instead of Rhodes.

With the referee down, Orton attempted a low blow before Rhodes landed one of his own, but Orton landed an RKO shortly after.

The ref was still down, so out ran McAfee in a neck brace and referee shirt to count, but Rhodes kicked out at two.

Orton then RKO’d McAfee before Rhodes turned Orton around into a Cross Rhodes and scored the win.

After the match, Orton attacked Rhodes during his celebration, punted him, and stood tall with the title belt to close the night.

Will Randy Orton & Pat McAfee Save WWE

The whole shoehorned storyline with Pat McAfee being in the corner of Randy Orton is the idea that McAfee wants to “save WWE” from Cody Rhodes – pointing out how things like ticket sales and ratings have been down as of late.

The question is whether anything will actually change with Orton as champion and McAfee being around – and the answer to that is maybe, but not directly because of them.

We at least know, since it’s been brought up in this storyline that was instigated by WWE parent company Endeavor and TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, that the company is aware of the current situation and that things have been down on last year.

Coming out of WrestleMania, WWE will likely make some adjustments to things like ticket prices and have a real hard look at the direction of things, which will probably result in some increases and improvements across the board.

That said, it’ll be interesting to see if the claim when that happens is that it’s because of McAfee and Orton – it could certainly be used as a claim in storyline from McAfee, but it might not be the most genuine argument.

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• WrestleMania
• Randy Orton
• Cody Rhodes
• wwe

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