Has the WrestleMania 42 WWE Championship Program Become Too Convoluted?
With only a few short weeks before WrestleMania 42 heads to Las Vegas, WWE continues to push its storylines across the finish line. One of the major stories heading into WrestleMania is the friends-turned-enemies feud between the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and ‘The Viper’ Randy Orton. Their history stems from Rhodes teaming with Orton as a member of Legacy. Their friendship remained strong until Orton turned on Rhodes and delivered a vicious attack on his former friend, leaving him a bloodied mess. With all this history, WWE had the opportunity to create a powerful story between the two, but somehow managed to make unnecessary additions to the story. What should’ve been a straightforward encounter has evolved into something that not even the fans can comprehend.
After Orton attacked Rhodes, it should’ve been the end of the show. Instead, Jelly Roll came out to attempt to reason with Orton, with ‘The Apex Predator’ shoving Jelly Roll to the ground in a fit of anger and confusion. A few weeks later, after attempting to stop a brawl between Rhodes and Orton, Jelly Roll would fall victim to an RKO. While Jelly Roll has had a bit of history with Orton, mainly teaming with Orton against Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam 2025, his involvement in this feud added absolutely nothing. It’s in WWE’s nature to add celebrities to get the crowd hyped for WrestleMania, but the story between Rhodes and Orton should’ve been enough to hold on its own. Jelly Roll wouldn’t be the only unnecessary celebrity involved in this feud.
For weeks, Orton was receiving mysterious calls from an unknown person. This led to intrigue within the WWE Universe as fans wanted to know who the person was. Many names were thrown out from Rhodes’ past, such as The Rock and Ted DiBiase. The mystery of who the caller was would soon be revealed on an episode of SmackDown during another brawl between Rhodes and Orton. As Rhodes got the upper hand, former NFL punter Pat McAfee suddenly made his way to the ring and kicked Rhodes in the lower region. McAfee was revealed to be the mystery caller. It was an underwhelming reveal to a great mystery, considering all the other possible options. McAfee explained that he wanted to save WWE from Rhodes, but his reasoning made no sense in the story that Rhodes and Orton could’ve told.
It doesn’t help that the feud between Rhodes and Orton shares a few similarities with Rhodes’ program with John Cena at last year’s WrestleMania. Orton and Cena are the veterans who turned heel, with the goal of becoming world champions once more. Another similarity is that both programs involve celebrities who add nothing to the feud. When Cena turned heel on Rhodes, their program could’ve easily been booked well, but WWE somehow had rapper Travis Scott be a centerpiece of the entire feud. It didn’t help that Scott took forever to make his way towards the ring at WrestleMania, only to get dropped by Rhodes. McAfee being inserted alongside Orton makes no sense and makes the mystery behind who was calling Orton all those weeks a disappointing payoff. WWE had the opportunity to use someone from Orton’s past to help guide him in this feud. Instead, they went for a retired football player who had no history with either Orton or Rhodes.
With just a few weeks away from WrestleMania, WWE has managed to make one of its more interesting feuds become convoluted. If WWE really wanted more involvement in this story, they could've added someone who could add more to the story, rather than taking it away. WWE could still swerve the fans and mix in a few surprises, but with the short amount of time left before their biggest show of the year, it seems that WWE has fumbled yet another storyline. Regardless, both Rhodes and Orton could still deliver a great match at WrestleMania, but the story being told has left a sour taste in many fans’ mouths.
