Randy Orton has looked back on the day when his in-ring career could have been over.
Sidelined with a back injury in May 2022, updates on Orton were very rare and there were no signs of the 14-time World Champion making his return. One year after being written off TV, Orton’s father Cowboy Bob Orton stated in an interview that doctors had advised him to never wrestle again, seemingly indicating that Orton had hit his final RKO in WWE.
While being interviewed by Sportskeeda, Orton recalled the day he was told that he needed to stop wrestling and how his future remained uncertain:
“I had top neurologists telling me that, ‘You know what, you had a great career, you have a life after wrestling, and you wanna be comfortable. You don’t wanna be in pain the rest of your life. We’re gonna fix your back, but you’re gonna have to stop wrestling’. “The first six months that I was out, I had that in the back of my head, and it was tough. It was mentally very challenging.”
I didn’t really know what the future held for me. But I was able to find a couple doctors that had done the exact surgery that I needed on some MMA guys that went back to the octagon, competed and were successful and had longer careers. So I knew that these were the doctors that I needed to have put me under and go under the knife with,”
Randy Orton Hopes To Add Another Accolade To His Record
At the time of writing, Orton is in the semifinals of the King of the Ring tournament. Set to face Tama Tonga in the next match on the go-home SmackDown, the winner of the match will meet Guther in the final on May 25th in Saudi Arabia.
Featured image: WWE
