Randy Orton recently shared insights with Billboard about his 20th WrestleMania and his upcoming WWE Backlash clash. Orton revealed he actively pushed for TNA World Heavyweight Champion Joe Hendry as his WrestleMania opponent after original plans changed due to an injury to Kevin Owens.
“There was a lot up in the air just a couple of things prior to Mania. Owens had the neck thing and it was starting to bug him. So once they took a closer look at that, the doctors said he was a no-go. This one was important to me because it was my 20th, and I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning. Getting these Manias in, and leaving as much of a legacy behind [as possible], is important. It kind of came down to, “OK. We need to get Orton an opponent. Who’s it gonna be?” And there was a very short list of guys on our own roster, but we had some new guys coming in — and it was one of those things where I needed to win, but considering we knew where I was going to be going thinking about Backlash, we needed me to look good coming out of Mania,” Orton stated. “It couldn’t be one of our new guys, because when we debut a new talent into the show [we couldn’t] have him start with a loss.So we put our heads together and it was actually my idea [for it to be] Joe Hendry. I kept pushing for it, and a couple people we’re unsure, but I was able to talk everybody into it. I’m really glad that they went with him. It was perfect. It was different from anything else on the card. It was a legitimate surprise, and we were able to keep it a surprise for the most part. We got that really cool, “Holy s–t” moment when his music hit, and it was great. He was great. It was actually a stress-free fun Mania for me, because I didn’t have this crazy 30 minutes balls-to-the-walls match with all this high-risk s–t. I had this cool little segment with Joe, and we didn’t have to do much to have fun out there. So I was really able to enjoy the week and just soak it all up.”
Looking ahead to Backlash in his hometown of St. Louis against John Cena, Orton admits to a unique anticipation.
“It’s different, because I’m the good guy, and that’s never been the case before — so I don’t know what to expect,” he said. Orton added, “I’m very excited to see… They might love John. They might sh*t on me and be booing me.” Despite it being his hometown, he noted, “I’m a homebody… It’s not like everyone is going to love me necessarily. I’m very curious to see how Saturday goes.”
