Why Randy Orton Could Break Incredible WWE Record

Randy Orton is back in WWE and focused on becoming a World Champion again.

The first episode of WWE SmackDown in 2026 was a newsworthy one as Matt Cardona officially returned to the company on a full-time basis, while NXT stars Trick Williams and Jordynne Grace joined the blue brand.

At the start of the show, The Miz did a promo ranting about all the disrespect he was shown in 2025 and how he deserves respect as the face of WWE. That led to Randy Orton’s SmackDown return after three months away.

It appeared as though Orton was in a good mood and wasn’t going to drop Miz with an RKO, but then Miz made things worse by talking way too much, so Orton dropped him with an RKO. After the fans chanted for more, Orton delivered a second RKO to Miz. Orton didn’t say a word on the microphone, yet his presence was obviously felt.

Later in the show, Orton told his good friend Cody Rhodes that he was coming for the WWE Championship after Cody retained the title against Drew McIntyre on the January 9th SmackDown.

WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield recently spoke to Videogamer.com, who asked if there was anybody in WWE who could beat John Cena’s record of having 17 WWE World Title reigns. Since Orton has 14 WWE World Title reigns, JBL mentioned The Viper as a possible candidate to break Cena’s amazing record.

“Yes, yeah. I definitely think so, there’s too much talent out there. I think you don’t have any idea who it is, so it’s impossible to predict. When Steve (Austin) was the ringmaster, I don’t think anybody would’ve thought, this guy’s the one that’s going to sell out every building you put his name on in the world. As good as Steve was, I don’t think anybody would’ve thought that about Steve when he was with the ringmaster and all of a sudden he becomes this guy, I don’t think you can predict that.

I mean, when Kane was a dentist, I don’t think you could predict that guy’s going to be a Hall of Famer and headline a million pay-per-view and 30 years later, he is still going to be a huge star. People just come and emerge and so I think you’re going to see that.

I think Randy Orton may break the title (record). I think Randy’s so different from everybody else, Randy is God’s gift to wrestling, Randy is so good, his dad was just like that, his grandfather was a great heel. Randy is just on a different level and Randy may be the guy.”

JBL Believes Randy Orton Should Be On TV More Often

At 45, Randy Orton is one of the oldest WWE superstars, and he works a schedule that gives him time off to be with his family, which includes a wife and five kids. However, many fans want to see Orton used more, especially in a main-event role. JBL was asked if he thought Orton was underutilized.

“It is hard to say, I would have him on TV more in my personal opinion yes. But you put him on TV more, maybe that can be a negative thing. You don’t know until you do it and I don’t think you can get too much Randy Orton, I think he’s that good. But I don’t know the answer to that, he is as big a star as there is, when he comes out, everything changes and that’s important.

There are very few guys in business that can do that, Randy’s one of those guys. So something is going very right with Randy right now.”

As for when he will retire from WWE, Randy Orton has made it clear he wants to wrestle until he’s 50 years old, so he likely has another four or five years left until he’s ready to call it quits.