Orton opens up about a number of subjects.
WWE is coming off a weekend where their programming emanated from Lyon, France. It was capped off with the Backlash Premium Live Event and as a part of the show, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens clashed with Tama Tonga and Solo Sikoa in a Street Fight.
For Orton’s entrance on SmackDown and at the PLE, the crowd sang the ‘Voices’ theme. He was interviewed by Adam’s Apple and said hearing that from the crowd in Lyon was mind-blowing. He hopes WWE does more Premium Live Events there.
Do you want me to be honest (about the differences between international & American crowds)? Night and day… Well let’s just put it this way: Since 2009, I’ve had the same entrance song. No American crowd has ever sang along to my song and they did it in France, three nights in a row. Sh*t, we were in Bologna, Italy and Vienna, Austria the first two shows of the tour and I could hear them singing there too. France, it was mind-blowing. But just as an example. But yeah, they were very happy to be there, they were on their feet the whole time. They knew all of us, all of our characters well enough to — they knew what they wanted to expect. We gave it to ‘em. It just made it for an amazing environment. I hope we do more PLE’s over there.
Elsewhere during the chat, Orton was asked how much longer does he feel he has left in wrestling. He stated that his answer would’ve been different two years ago before undergoing spinal fusion surgery. Orton remembers being in pain throughout his 30s and asking for time off.
Vince McMahon told him that mother nature comes for everyone. Orton said changes have been made regime-wise and it’s about preserving talent instead of running them into the ground. Present day, he is set on being full-time and would not mind wrestling into his 50s or stopping at 50. With the current regime in place, Orton said he can go to Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque and ask for time off with no questions asked.
Well if you would’ve asked me two years ago (how much longer I have left in wrestling), I would have thought it would’ve been close to the end. But I had a spinal fusion a year-and-a-half ago and that changed the game. I’d been in pain through my entire 30s. I was hurting. I was begging for time off when I was 35 and I think Vince’s — his quote to me was, ‘Mother nature gets us all,’ and you know, that’s hard to hear when you’re 35 and your back hurts and you’re busting your ass for this company and you know, there’s been some changes and now, I think instead of pushing guys and running their dicks into the ground until they fall apart and they can’t do it anymore, there’s — it’s a great atmosphere to go, okay, how can we make this guy last? And the beauty of it is-is I’m not even there yet. I feel so great after my surgery. I’m a full-time guy. I don’t wanna do the old Undertaker or Shawn Michaels schedule which they needed to do, understandably, but wrestle at WrestleMania, take the summer off, maybe you’ll see ‘em at SummerSlam, yada, yada, yada. I wanna be on the road every week. I wanna make all the TVs and be on all the PLEs and at 44, just turned 44, I would love to be able to go into my 50s. Maybe I wrestle until I’m 50 and call it and that’s 30 years. 30 years with the same company, on top. I wrestled more pay-per-views, PLE’s, whatever you wanna call it than anyone else in the history of the WWE. I’ve been around a long time but not only that, I’ve been here the whole time and I’ve been busting my ass whether I’m injured or not. Been showing up and it just feels like now is the perfect environment for me to thrive and if I do need to take a week off because I am getting up there, I get it. There’s no question. There’s been twice since I’ve been back in November where I was like, ‘Hey Hunter, can I take a week to just recover? So I could be 100 percent for the following week.’ He said, ‘Oh sure, yeah. As long as you communicate that to me, no problem.’ So, having that in my back pocket, it’s a real peace of mind knowing that if I need — because I am 44 (he laughed) — if I need a week, they’ll give it to me.
The idea of making the move into acting was brought up and Orton revealed that he’s with United Talent Agency. He does auditions and self-tapes.
I was just talking to Cody Rhodes about this (venturing into acting) in Marcé, France and it’s… I really love what I’m doing now. I love watching movies. There’s a lot of work that goes into them. 10, 12 hours a day on set… and I do auditions. I’m with U.T.A. and I do turn in some auditions, I do some self-tapes here and there but, sometimes I’ll see these roles pop up a year or two later that I don’t get and I’ll see it and I’ll be like, ‘Man, I’m glad I didn’t get that role.’ I would’ve busted my ass. Wrestled, flown out, filmed, wrestled, just for this? And it would’ve did nothing for me and I don’t mean to sound like an egotistical prick but, in my bubble, in my world, in wrestling, I’m up here. I go to acting, I’m down here and like, listen, if someone wants to say, hey, you wanna read to be the next villain in this movie? Sh*t, yeah. But these little parts and stuff they’re throwing at me, it’s like, man, let me just have the time to go home each week to my family, be a father, be a husband, play with my dogs in the yard. I enjoy my off-time so unless it’s a project that is just — I’d be unable to turn it down, I kind of like what I’m doing right now.
Orton and Owens did not pick up the win at Backlash due to the arrival of Tama Tonga’s brother, Tanga Loa, who helped The Bloodline win the match.
Next up for Orton is the King of the Ring tournament and in the first round, he’ll be taking on A.J. Styles.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Adam’s Apple with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
