Pat McAfee returns alongside Randy Orton after last week's heel turn.

WWE

Pat McAfee’s Massive Surprise (April 10, 2026) | Key Points

• Pat McAfee announced that himself and WrestleMania partner Rams Trucks will foot the bill for a 25% off sale of WrestleMania 42 tickets from now through the end of WWE Raw.
• Cody Rhodes and Pat McAfee went back-and-forth in a promo filled with insider references to the IWC and Ari Emanuel.
• McAfee vowed to leave the wrestling business forever if Randy Orton lost.

Pat McAfee returned with a worked shoot promo opposite Cody Rhodes as the two levied scud missiles at each other and their respective opps. McAfee called out both CM Punk and Cody Rhodes as frauds, announced a 25% off discount of WrestleMania 42 tickets until WWE Raw and vowed to leave the wrestling business if Randy Orton doesn’t win the world title at WrestleMania Saturday. Rhodes responded by criticizing “play wrestler” McAfee’s relationship with top TKO officials and getting fans to chant “go home, Pat.”

After last week’s controversial reveal of Pat McAfee as the mystery caller, McAfee vowed a massive surprise in Week 2. Though McAfee’s return was met largely with negative backlash, the anticipated moment led to a giant rating for the April 3 broadcast of SmackDown, which garnered 1.51 million viewers. McAfee continued his act on the “Pat McAfee Show” with an in-character response to his actions.

With the taste of outrage still fresh in their feral mouths, overzealous and twitter-obsessed fans in the IWCIWC manufactured their latest scandal. SmackDown’s thumbnail advertising McAfee’s follow-up features Pat front-and-center with Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes in the background. Some fans even tweeted (empty) threats to skip SmackDown altogether.

WWE replicated the element of surprise strategy with McAfee teasing another “massive surprise.”

“I have a MASSIVE SURPRISE to announce tomorrow night [sic],” McAfee wrote in a tweet on Thursday night. McAfee continued t0 tease a surprise with a Friday morning tweet saying “It FINALLY feels like WrestleMania Season doesn’t it? [sic]” The surprised appeared to be the combination of another WrestleMania sale and McAfee’s “loser leave town” stipulation.

CM Punk And Damian Priest Call Out Pat McAfee

WWE is reportedly reworking plans with Pat McAfee as it continues to overthink its Night 1 main event. McAfee pointed out WWE’s stagnant ticket sales compared to last year—though he didn’t mention the fact that WWE set another live gate record for WrestleMania.

CM Punk responded inkind with a scathing pipebomb imploring WWE parent company TKO to lower its ticket prices and vowing to give McAfee a receipt. Many consider Punk’s promo to be a Top 5 promo in his legendary career. Punk’s promo echoed the feelings of WWE Superstars who are reportedly frustrated with the WrestleMania build. Damian Priest recently appeared on a podcast with Gabby LaSpisa and aired these worked-shoot sentiments.

“It sucks. Not a fan. You know, somebody who knows Pat, get along with him. But for me, that’s not my taste. I don’t think it helps anything. He didn’t need it. So for me, and, you know, I’m sure a lot of people aren’t going to be happy that I said that, but in the locker room specifically, like a lot of us weren’t happy and that’s real.”

Amid all the chaos of Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes, The Rock, Jelly Roll superagent Ari Emanuel and even Vince McMahon have been directly or indirectly mentioned on WWE television.

WWE has two SmackDowns to make its final sales pitch for the WrestleMania’s main event—and the WrestleMania show in general. Another SmackDown with almost 10,000 fans in attendance, however, suggests that reports of WWE and TKO’s demise are greatly exaggerated.