Before we get into some details about the 20 Year Journey of Randy Orton, I personally would like to thank him for everything he has done for WWE over the past 20 years and to be as active as he is and only getting better with time, Randy Orton could go another 10 years in WWE easily. He is one of the most recognisable faces of WWE along with John Cena because he has been here for so long. I will talk about the achievements of Randy Orton below but here I personally want to say that his RKO finish is the best in wrestling and it looks so great when It’s Outta Nowhere.
Randy Orton is a 14 Time World Champion in WWE and he is tied for the second most of all time along with his mentor Triple H. Randy Orton is also a 2 time Royal Rumble match winner in 2009 and 2017 and in 2017 he won the WWE championship at WrestleMania 33. Randy Orton has also won Money in the bank which he cashed in on Daniel Bryan in 2013. Randy Orton is also a multi time tag team champion and his current Raw Tag Team title reign with Riddle as RkBro is one of his best. He has also won the United States Championship and going by how fit and great he is a few more titles are due for him. Let’s look at 20 years of Randy Orton in WWE.
The Debut
It was Episode number 141 of SmackDown those days and the show was In Peoria, Illinois and 8500 people came to watch the show but they saw a debut of a young man ,22 year old Randy Orton vs Hardcore Holly and the match aired on TV on 25th April 2002. The match was barely 3 minutes long but as Randy said that this was the test for him and he beat Hardcore Holly with a Roll up and thus a new star had arrived.
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Family business
Randy Orton is a third generation wrestler and although it looked like Randy Orton was destined to be in WWE one day he had little interest but his grandfather Bob Orton was a star in the Bruno Sammartino era of Madison Square Garden and his father “Cowboy” Bob Orton was a major star himself and wrestled in WWE, NWA and NJPW and thus Randy Orton was destined to be in WWE but no one thought he would surpass the legacy of his elder family members.
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The Evolution to becoming a WWE Champion
In the early part of his career Randy Orton struggled with injuries and he was out of action for months but when he finally got the all clear to return and Triple H decided that he would take him under him and change his career forever. And thus with Triple H, Randy Orton, a new star in Batista and the legend Ric Flair came together in what was the most powerful faction in WWE known as Evolution. From here the career went up as first Randy Orton won the Intercontinental Championship from Rob Van Dam at Armageddon in December 2003 and from that time the name “Legend Killer” came about. The match that changed the career of Randy Orton was at Backlash 2004 and the Hardcore legend Mick Foley came back to wrestle a young Randy and they both put on such a brutal match that everyone in WWE was surprised to see Randy Orton doing so much and they decided that he was the future. He beat Mick Foley and the rear us history. Then came the crowning moment in the career of Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2004 when he beat Chris Benoit to become the youngest World Champion in WWE History.
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The Downside to the Authority
In 2005 the career of Randy Orton took a turn for the bad as initially he was at the top of the card and was featured against the Undertaker at WrestleMania 21 and had a long feud with him. However, the life outside of WWE started giving problems to him as he became careless and partying all day and night and he also had to be suspended for 60 days which was unheard of at that time in 2006. In 2009, the career track of Randy Orton came back on track as he formed Legacy with Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr as they ran roughshod for sometime before breaking up but the next big step for Randy Orton was with the authority. He became the biggest heel in 2013 and by beating Daniel Bryan he became WWE champion again and he had a long feud with Bryan and it all culminated at WrestleMania 30 where Daniel won the WWE championship.
The Wyatt Family and Post 2020 Randy Orton
This is our second last heading. In 2016, Randy Orton was going nowhere but suddenly he was in the Wyatt Family storyline as he joined the Wyatt Family and it culminated in a long story where they first won the Tag Team titles in 2016 and then before WrestleMania 33 they broke up leading to a match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton which was a bad match. Then when the Covid Pandemic hit we saw some of the best heel work by Randy Orton in 2020 In his feud with Edge as they both brought out the best in each other and they had a series of great Matches at WrestleMania and WrestleMania Backlash.
RkBro
Last year around March April there was something happening that no one saw coming and at first everyone dismissed it as a bad Idea. Riddle started convincing Randy Orton that they should team up in 2021 and at first Randy Orton was hesitant but slowly he warned upto Riddle and finally they became a team and they have won the Raw Tag Team titles twice and now Randy Orton is having the most fun in his career. Hope this lasts for long and we see more shades of Randy Orton in the future as well.
Also Read: Top Five Greatest Matches of Randy Orton
