Lapsed fan's guide: McAfee; Lesnar-Femi, more

17.04.2026, 19:11 espn.com

As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but haven't watched a match since John Cena's farewell, we're happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to WrestleMania 42, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

How about Pat McAfee?

And also Jelly Roll.

This match was born in the Elimination Chamber, where Orton's win over a field that included Rhodes earned him a WrestleMania title shot. The undisputed WWE champion, Drew McIntyre, entered the chamber and helped cost Rhodes the win. That set up a title match between Rhodes and McIntyre on "SmackDown" that saw Rhodes recapture the championship he lost to McIntyre in January. So now Orton had his opponent for the WrestleMania title shot: the guy he beat in the match to earn his title shot at WrestleMania.

Anyway, these old friends met for an official contract signing, aka the most dangerous event in wrestling. True to form, Orton beat up and bloodied Rhodes.

On the "Raw" that followed the contract-signing mess, Orton was seen taking a mysterious phone call (Is there any other kind of call in wrestling?) from someone whom he credited with inspiring the attack on Rhodes. That caller? Former NFL punter and WWE announcer Pat McAfee, whom you may also know from a little "progrum" he hosts every weekday afternoon on ESPN.

McAfee apparently incited Orton to violence because the WWE has "gone in a direction that no one likes," and he wants to bring back the glory of the Attitude Era. Symbolizing all that's wrong with the business was Rhodes, the guy who bleeds in every match and famously said "go f--- yourself" to The Rock last year. But he does often wear a tailored suit.

Musician-turned-in-ring performer Jelly Roll got involved in this nonsense by giving Rhodes a pep talk and getting an Orton beatdown for it. And so, we have Cody and Jelly and Randy and Pat all aligned and ready for WrestleMania -- and a seemingly inevitable tag team match at Backlash in May.

Is this a better direction than simply having two dynastic wrestlers with a deep personal history battling for the belt? Speaking of the belt, Cody reclaimed the WWE title McAfee "stole" from him on "SmackDown" by showing up at the Thunderdome after-hours on Tuesday night. Thanks to the magic of closed-circuit television, the whole incident was captured and aired on Wednesday's "The Pat McAfee Show."

WWE fans have been, ahem, passionately debating this question since the McAfee reveal. Rhodes himself told Jimmy Traina on the "SI Media" podcast that it was "the most ill-received thing in the history of wrestling," and obviously he's not prone to hyperbole.

But it's still Cody vs. Randy as the main course, no matter what other condiments have been added.

As for McAfee, fans were stunned when he was called a "buggy-whipped hillbilly" whose mouth was writing checks that his "narrow ass" couldn't cash ... by CM Punk, who has nothing to do with this match, but who will defend his world heavyweight championship against Roman Reigns in the main event of Night 2.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Two former partners from more than a decade ago -- one believes he mentored the other -- have an extreme falling-out ahead of their championship match at WrestleMania. The difference between Orton-Rhodes and Punk-Reigns is the pure, uncut hatred that has fueled the latter feud.

Please recall in 2012, when The Shield -- Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose -- debuted as the hired goons for Punk, who claims he set the example for Reigns to follow. Reigns shot back by saying that Punk taught him "what not to do," while mocking Punk's decision to leave WWE for a decade. Reigns also claims the WWE asked for his OK when Punk made his dramatic return in 2023, as if a Tribal Chief doesn't already have enough on his plate to have to make a human resources decision.

Reigns won Royal Rumble in January to earn this title shot and selected Punk as his opponent, saying in a bile-dripping promo, "I'm picking you because I hate you. I've always hated you. And WrestleMania's going to be the day of my life, because in the main event, you will acknowledge me."

That's the good stuff right there.

Also good: Reigns' and Punk's last promo battle before 'Mania at "Raw" on Monday added layers of pathos to their feud. Punk admitted to hating Reigns because he was born into a wrestling dynasty and also being envious of Roman's elephantine title run and WrestleMania main events. Reigns admitted that he hates Punk because he's envious of the champ's connection with the fans. "I hope one day when I leave, they chant for me for 10 years straight," he said.

Sometimes you just need good old-fashioned vitriol and a title on the line to sell a WrestleMania match. In fact, Punk's wife, AJ Lee, is involved in one herself.

Ever since AJ skipped back into WWE last September on an episode of "SmackDown" in Chicago after a decade-long absence, she has infuriated "The Man." She made Lynch submit to the Black Widow at Wrestlepalooza, Survivor Series and Elimination Chamber, where she won the Intercontinental title from Becky to the delight of the Chicago fans.

There's a little Becky as Frank Grimes and AJ as Homer Simpson here, to be honest. Becky spiraled into conspiracy theories and heretofore unseen levels of entitlement, while AJ Lee just does AJ Lee things.

Lynch finally snapped last month on "Raw," unleashing nearly six months of pent-up embarrassment and frustration in an attack on the IC champ. Key phrase: "six months." Hopefully, after whatever happens at WrestleMania, they can both move on to other business.

Liv Morgan won the Royal Rumble and chose women's world champion Stephanie Vaquer as her opponent by sucker-punching her in the face with the mic.

That led to several weeks of delightfully nasty back-and-forth sneak attacks that have caused their share of collateral damage -- like when Vaquer knocked Morgan into Roxanne Perez before breaking a flat-screen TV with Morgan's skull, giving her a welt on her head. Or when Morgan knocked Vaquer into interviewer Cathy Kelley before engaging in a classic WWE pull-apart brawl, in which the wrestlers escaped the clutches of like three dozen security personnel to keep pounding each other.

When she wasn't calling Vaquer's mother "trash" (!), Morgan was busy becoming an instant meme, looking like if Sydney Sweeney was cast in "The Alexa Bliss Story."

Who wins the match? We'll answer that question with a question: Which one of these wrestlers recently had a WWE-produced music video called "Trouble" released with all the sweaty choreography of a 2006 VMAs nominee? Hint: It's not Stephanie Vaquer.

Meanwhile, WWE women's champion Jade Cargill defends against Rhea Ripley, who won the Elimination Chamber to secure the title shot. The buildup for this feud has seen Cargill deliver her finishing move, "Jaded," to Ripley roughly three dozen times (or so it feels). She has also attacked Ripley's bud and tag partner, Iyo Sky, with a kendo stick while Ripley was forced to watch. Cargill has backup from B-Fab and Michin. Iyo, at the moment, doesn't have a match at WrestleMania, freeing her up for a dramatic run-in.

The WWE Women's Tag Team Championship is also on the line in a Fatal 4-Way match featuring Nia Jax and Lash Legend (champions); Nikki and Brie Bella; Bayley and Lyra Valkyria; and Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, who are looking for payback against Jax and Legend for costing them the tag titles last November.

Flair and Bliss are fun because they remain utterly combustible. Flair called Bliss her "ally of convenience" on "SportsCenter" this week. Kudos to these two for making "Can they coexist?" last this long into their partnership.

Here's a fun game: Can you name them?

No? Well, that might be why Damian Priest and R-Truth (WWE tag team champions) aren't on the card and why Logan Paul and Austin Theory (world tag team champions) are involved in a charmingly convoluted six-man tag team match that was set in motion when Danhausen told IShowSpeed that he was cursed.

IShowSpeed, aka Speed, is a 21-year-old influencer and streamer who first appeared at 2024's WrestleMania XL to support Paul while dressed as a Prime bottle in a nod to Paul's energy drink company. Orton did the only thing one could do in a situation like that and RKO'd him on the announce table. Speed appeared again at the 2025 Royal Rumble, where Bron Breakker showed his speed before spearing the streamer into the thermosphere.

Last month, Speed appeared on "Raw," where a new addition to the roster, Danhausen, "cursed" him, leading to Speed accidentally hitting LA Knight with brass knuckles during a match that saw LA's buddies, The Usos, lose their tag titles to Paul and Theory. LA Knight would later invade IShowSpeed's livestream, hurling him into his own webcam.

OK, so about that Danhausen. He was an indie wrestling darling whose face is painted to look like an "Insidious" demon with a voice inspired by Conan O'Brien. He chastises wrestlers for using profanity and describes himself as "very nice, very evil." He speaks about himself in third person and adds "hausen" as a suffix to things. Most importantly for this match: He has the supernatural ability to "curse" others, leading to all manner of calamity.

Danhausen emerged from a large wooden crate at Elimination Chamber with a cadre of similarly dressed women to a tepid crowd response. Over the next several weeks, he inexplicably became perhaps the WWE's most popular performer, based on T-shirt sales? What's indisputable: Danhausen has injected chaos and comedy into shows that have needed more of it.

Please note that IShowSpeed remains "cursed" as he teams with Paul and Theory against Knight and the Usos at WrestleManiahausen. We expect there might be a demon that pops up during this match. But if not, there's another match that will allow WWE to hit its demon quota.

Hey, desperate times call for slathering your body in black paint. The implosion of Judgment Day was a