WWE scrapped its original plans for Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42

Randy Orton ended up teaming up with Pat McAfee at WrestleMania 42, but that was not the original plan. The initial idea had Aleister Black in that role, with a much more psychological story around Orton.

The concept revolved around Black provoking Orton to bring out his most dangerous version again, the old "Apex Predator". The intention was that, if Black managed to push Orton to that point, it would be clear that he had never completely changed.

The planned story included a match between them during WrestleMania weekend, in which Orton would hesitate to apply the Punt Kick and probably lose. Then, he would have ended up attacking Cody Rhodes with that same move to embrace his wild side once again.

Finally, WWE discarded that approach and transformed it into Orton's alliance with McAfee. The result retained part of the central idea, the return of the most ruthless Orton, but completely changed the path to get there.

The change shows how WWE was adjusting the story on the fly. In one version, Black was the trigger for the change; in the other, McAfee ended up taking that place in a much more chaotic route towards the same creative outcome.