Before Randy Orton was taken off WWE TV due to a back injury, he was a part of the tag team division, where he used to be in a tag team with Matt Riddle, together known as RK-BRO.
They held the RAW Tag Team Championship twice and the plan was for them to break up and have a feud with each other.
However, that plan got canceled due to Orton’s injury and Riddle getting released from the company.
During an interview on The MMA Hour, Riddle revealed that he pitched the idea of him turning heel on Orton for their eventual feud, rather than Orton turning heel on him, and Randy agreed with this pitch as well.
Here’s what The Original Bro said:
“This was my suggestion, and talking to everybody in the office, and even Randy agreed, was the smarter idea would be if I turned on him.
Because Randy being the legend that he is, and me just being a babyface, even if Randy turned on me and is a bad guy, he is a legend. He is Randy. He has done more PPVs, more RAWs, more than like everybody. Even if you boo him, you’d love to boo him.
So, I’m like, ‘Guys, me trying to get sympathy when Randy is beating me isn’t going to work. They are just going to cheer Randy beating me up.’
Now, if I attack Randy when you’re not expecting it and hurt Randy, and I take him away, the crowd is going to be real mad at me, and I’m going to get nuclear heat. And we have good chemistry, and the story will play out as it shall.”
During an interview on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast in 2023, Orton revealed the issues he was facing due to his injury and thanked Riddle for being his tag team partner in RK-BRO and doing most of the work during the matches.
Below is what Orton said:
“I changed a lot of stuff off this last 18 months. I really needed the time; I had a lot of ailments; I couldn’t stand for more than a couple of minutes without having pain shoot down my legs.
When I would sit I had a disc that was slipping every time I would bend. On a plane, sitting here, my feet would go numb and I would have pain shooting down my legs. It was hard.
That last year before I had to leave because of the back. I was in a tag team with former WWE Superstar Matt Riddle. I got to give him props because that year we tagged together; I was not able to be in that ring unless I was in there with someone like him because he was able to take the brunt of the physicality.
If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have made it that far.
I had some great doctors, they fixed me up right. They didn’t cut through any muscle which would enable me to get back in the ring.
Because once you start cutting muscle, like that’s never gonna heal back and you’re done. I’m just blessed all the way around.”
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