At WWE's WrestleMania 42, Cody Rhodes retained his Undisputed Title over Randy Orton in somewhat of a surprise result, given that Pat McAfee had vowed to leave WWE forever if Orton was unsuccessful - a development that most thought was farfetched.
However, Rhodes was victorious in what was described in the last Wrestling Observer Newsletter as backstage "chaos" that was very WCW-like.
According to Dave Meltzer, that the decision to keep the belt on Rhodes was made after McAfee opted out of continuing with WWE but that it wasn't a decision that made the day of the show but in advance. He added that the belief within WWE circles for McAfee wanting out wasn't just the negativity from fans but also from WWE talent as well. Meltzer clarified by negativity, it wasn't also necessarily heel heat towards McAfee, but the negative reaction to the angle from fans and wrestlers.
One of the points that WWE talent were critical of was that they felt that Rhodes and Orton already had a strong storyline that dated back to Orton serving as Rhodes' mentor in Legacy and that by involving McAfee as well as Jelly Roll, it took away from the story.
Meltzer also wrote that once McAfee asked out, WWE made the decision to go in a direction of having Rhodes vs. CM Punk as the next big match - perhaps at SummerSlam - instead of moving forward with Orton as the champion. He described the behind-the-scenes atmosphere as being chaotic "like WCW" before Night One.
