Why Randy Orton Wanted Joe Hendry As WrestleMania 41 Opponent

Randy Orton has opened up about how he was able to talk WWE people into having Joe Hendry as his WrestleMania 41 opponent.

One of the biggest grudge matches at WrestleMania 41 was supposed to be between former friends Kevin Owens and Randy Orton. Unfortunately, Owens was diagnosed with a serious neck injury that required surgery, so a devastated Orton was left without an opponent for the biggest WWE show of the year.

The TNA World Champion Joe Hendry took KO’s place as Orton’s WrestleMania 41 opponent. It was not a classic match since it only lasted three minutes, and Orton easily won with an RKO. However, there were memorable moments, like when Orton dropped Hendry with an RKO post-match, and Orton also did a Hendry-like pose toward the camera.

After WrestleMania, it was reported that Randy Orton personally chose Joe Hendry for the match, and the decision-makers in WWE obviously agreed with that choice.

Randy Orton Orton Thought His WrestleMania 41 Match Was Great

While speaking to Billboard, Orton explained why he wanted Hendry as his opponent and the other factors involved.

“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.

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.”

In the same interview, Randy Orton talked about how his hometown crowd in St. Louis might love him at WWE Backlash, but they could also support the WWE Champion John Cena in what is possibly the final Cena-Orton match ever since Cena is retiring at year’s end.