2 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE SmackDown (17 April - Results & Review)

3. Randy’s Logic Is Sound, But…

...this whole scenario still feels backwards.

Randy Orton zoomed into the arena with Pat McAfee, Pat signed his contract for the match with Cody Rhodes (they’re just signing it now?!), then Randy cut an impassioned promo about how Cody only takes, takes, takes as a friend. The crowd in Vegas cheered that, and they also booed every mention of Rhodes. This feud is chaos. Sheer chaos.

Cody is going to get verbally mauled at WrestleMania, and there doesn't seem to be anything WWE can do to stop that. In truth, they've made things worse by having guys like Orton and McAfee tell it like it is. It's hard to hate on Randy for multiple reasons, but chief amongst them is that he isn't wrong and the people know it. This was actually a pretty good speech from Orton, but it’s tough to ignore the lame build we’ve been served up for this lay-up of a story between old stablemates.

Lord only knows why the writing staff found this rivalry so difficult to manage. All they had to do was lean into the history between both guys, then go from there. Instead, they've had Pat join Orton like that was necessary, then McAfee ridiculed WWE/TKO for failing to sell more tickets for 'Mania 42.

It was too late in the day to have Mr. RKO outright say he "doesn't need Pat McAfee". They've missed the boat on that bit of storytelling, because the match is literally on Saturday. Again, solid enough speech from Orton, but ultimately a fruitless exercise considering everything else that's been going on.