Randy Orton’s WWE Career “Almost Ended” Before Absence

Randy Orton has been out of action for several months as he deals with an injury but a new report has stated that his WWE career “almost ended.”

Randy Orton and Matt Riddle had formed the popular RK-Bro tag team on Raw before Orton’s leave of absence. They held the Raw Tag Team Championship on two occasions before losing their gold to SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos in May 2022.

Since then Randy Orton has been out of action with no time frame given for a potential return to action for The Viper.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that the plan was never to unify the tag team titles in WWE but Randy Orton’s status changed all that, and that Orton’s injury may have been more serious than previously thought:

“There’s no longer a unified championship, there’s a Raw championship and a SmackDown championship and each will be defended. So they can lose one set of belts and retain the others which probably will happen at some point and still maintain that streak of nine million days as champion.”

“The tag titles were not gonna be unified but then that’s when Randy Orton’s career almost ended. So then they just figured that – Riddle and Orton were gonna stay as the Raw champions but there was gonna be no more Orton, he pretty much finished up after losing that title. So without Riddle and Orton – RK-Bro – who were a hot team they just went with The Usos to hold both belts.”

It was also noted by Meltzer’s co-host Bryan Alvarez on the show that for some in WWE, “the countdown is on” for Vince McMahon to regain full control of the company.

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