Randy Orton returned to WWE television as a babyface in November at Survivor Series by competing in the Men’s WarGames Match alongside Cody Rhodes, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, Jey Uso & Sami Zayn to beat defeated The Judgment Day (Damian Priest, Finn Bálor, “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh).
The return
Since then, Orton has set his sights on The Bloodline and Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Title. He will get his chance to not only get his hands on Reigns but also the title next Saturday at the Royal Rumble PLE when he works a fatal 4-way match against Reigns, LA Knight, and AJ Styles with the title on the line.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, Orton did a contract signing with Knight and Styles in the opening segment before wrestling Solo Sikoa in a first-time-ever match, which served as the main event.
Interaction
As seen below, Orton posed in the ring after the match before he went to ringside, where he shook hands and high-fived some fans. As Orton was interacting with fans, WWE staff tried to get Orton to leave ringside and go to the back, but the former WWE Champion stayed to make sure he greeted all the fans at ringside.
This is an example of the backstage reports regarding the positive morale that has been instilled since Triple H took over main roster creative last summer from Vince McMahon.
