Randy Orton on Being in His WWE Prime, Passing on Acting, Changing His Music, More

A debilitating back injury nearly ended the iconic career of Randy Orton in 2022, sidelining him from WWE action for an agonizing 18 months.

In addition to now being back and better than before, he is only one win away from an opportunity to headline WrestleMania 40 for the World Heavyweight Championship.

The Viper will first have to endure the men's Elimination Chamber match at the same-titled premium live event on Saturday in Perth, Australia and escape unscathed.

However, he's no stranger to Satan's Structure, with this upcoming installment being his ninth to date and having successfully retained his WWE Championship inside the Chamber in 2014.

Orton returned to the ring at Survivor Series in November with a new lease on life and has been riding a wave of momentum ever since on SmackDown. While the remainder of his road to WrestleMania remains unclear, he intends to soak up every moment he has with the audience and continue competing at the highest of levels.

Ahead of Elimination Chamber and the season premiere of his Biography: WWE Legends documentary on A&E this Sunday, The Viper sat down with Bleacher Report to discuss his hiatus, why he didn't pursue acting, changing his approach to promos, and more.

Check out the complete audio of the interview on the next slide and read on for the highlights.

Orton has dealt with his fair share of injuries over the course of his career and missed months at a time but never anything that jeopardized his future inside the squared circle until he underwent back surgery in the summer of 2022.

The procedure was serious enough that retirement was a realistic possibility for the 43-year-old.

"For about six months, I wasn't really sure what was going to happen," Orton told B/R. "I had a top-of-his-class neurosurgeon tell me, 'Think about quality of life post-career. It's probably time you hang up the boots.'

"[Matt] Riddle and I had been going for about a year, and because of him—bless his heart—I was able to do it that last year, but I just got to a point where my symptoms were just killing me.

"I had never taken a cortisone shot because I knew that was a slippery slope on the spine and that was my break-glass-in-case-of-emergency-type thing."

Upon getting back the results of his MRI, he discovered that there was an extensive amount of degeneration in his back as well as stenosis on the lower spine and slipped disc. He came to the conclusion that no shot was going to help him and that spinal fusion was his only option.

Orton admitted to being in constant pain prior to that after damaging his back in the ring between 2010 and 2020.

"The surgery was a success," he said. "I put on 30 pounds of muscle, purely because of my change in diet and the fact that I was able to train differently and areas I had to leave alone for such a long time. My body really reacted. I feel, at 275 pounds, I'm the weight that I should be, so I feel great now.

"I feel like I got a new lease on life that, at 43, I can honestly say I'm smack-dab in the middle of my prime. Some people might roll their eyes at that statement after 24 years in the business, but that's how I feel.

"Never in my 30s was I feeling this durable or as pain-free as am I now. I've got a new outlook and I don't want to take a second for granted because I realized how quickly it can all be taken away because it almost was."

For many years, Orton had a reputation for being one of the most closed-off Superstars on the entire WWE roster.

In recent years, though, he's come out of his shell and isn't on edge as much as he once was, both on and off screen.

His gradual change in demeanor, along with everything he's accomplished in his 20-plus years with WWE, will be covered in depth in a documentary airing this Sunday on A&E, which will also mark the Season 4 premiere of Biography: WWE Legends.

The Viper revealed that he kept busy by gaming during his long layoff from WWE TV, specifically the Elden Ring franchise.

"When I first was out, Elden Ring was popping and I got hooked on the Souls games," he said. "I'm actually playing Lords of the Fallen right now when the kids go to bed and before momma's ready to watch Netflix and chill, I've got 30 [minutes], maybe an hour and a half tops where I can get some gaming in and that's my little decompression time. My wife, Kim, is great at allowing me that.

"Lords of the Fallen is what I'm playing right now and it's hard, but I'm getting through it, man, and I think those Souls games are probably my favorite. I did play the open-world zombies on Call of Duty and I loved that, too. The zombies were a great change-up."

Orton then recalled the roster playing video games backstage earlier in his career and not thinking much of it but now feels he can relate to them being an avid gamer himself.

He called it a positive atmosphere and a good way for wrestlers who are away from their families to bond, kill time and not get into trouble.

"There's nothing as innocent as a bunch of old men playing video games together," he said.

John Cena, Dave Bautista, Brock Lesnar and Orton were all a part of WWE's Class of 2002 and debuted on SmackDown within months of each other.

Each of them has found significant superstardom in the wrestling world but also outside of it. Cena and Bautista in particular have taken their talents to Hollywood in the past decade and have excelled in that industry more than any other wrestler not named The Rock.

Orton couldn't be prouder of their success.

"I don't even try to support Dave, I just support Dave because he's in half the movies I watch. He'll just turn up," Orton said. "I'm so proud of the guy, man. He's doing such a great job. He's killing it. And I respect the hell out of changing from our industry and going into the Hollywood thing because that's rough."

"To be able to watch guys go do that and kill it like Cena... like, oh my God," he continued. "Mark my words. In another couple of years, [John is] going to be as big as The Rock. He's got something special. Nobody can do comedy like John.

"The John that I know, once he's really able to get into that character and be himself, it's like Peacemaker was made for him. That role was almost written for him. The way he acts in that, that's the Cena I used to ride up and down the highway with going from town to town and had all these rivalries with."

Orton was adamant about the acting life not suiting his style and being more than content staying put inside the squared circle.

"I enjoy this life," he said. "I enjoy wrestling in front of that live crowd, getting that immediate fix of adrenaline from that reaction and that you can almost be a puppeteer and create these moments and almost listen to the crowd and let them take you on a ride and end up somewhere you didn't know you were going to go.

"I appreciate you noticing that it comes across in my promos and interacting with the other talent on TV that I'm enjoying being out there because I really am. The more I break out of my comfort zone, which I've done over the last few years, the better wrestler, the better talent I am the more that I do that."

Unsurprisingly, Orton has been around long enough that he's earned a certain level of creative freedom within WWE, and that's become apparent with his promos over the years.

Earlier in his career, the 14-time world champion's mic work was widely regarded as robotic. It wasn't until he cut loose later on that he become one of the best talkers in the company.

His 2020 rivalry with Edge was instrumental in that regard.

"Before I left, I was doing the stuff with Riddle and it was still the old guard, none of those changes had taken place," Orton said. "I was definitely at a point with Vince [McMahon] where he would allow me to approve my backstage vignettes, if I was able to pre-tape them. Instead of a producer having to come give it the OK, he'd ask, 'Did you like it?' If I said yes, he'd go, 'Then I don't need to see it.'"

Once Orton started putting more time, effort and emotion into his promos, he felt foolish for realizing what he had been missing out on for 20 years and hated that he was late to the game in that department.

The more he lets fans in, the bigger a star he comes across as to fans. That includes being vulnerable, messing up once in a while and reacting to stuff off the cuff.

"Before we went into COVID, we did some stuff in Brooklyn with Beth [Phoenix] where I RKO'd Beth," he said. "After that segment, Vince was like, 'Man, you're on fire.' That was everything. All I did was, I slowly stopped trying to attack these promos like I had to get the point across of what the writer wanted me to say. Instead, I would take those words and come up with my own way to say them.

"Listen, those writers are great. The most creative people I know. But a lot of times, if you don't change the words from the way they want you to tell their story, it's going to come across as you not believing what you're saying because you're trying to memorize. I was stuck."

It has long been rumored that Orton was never fond of his original entrance theme, "Burn In My Light," despite the tune being a fan favorite.

According to The Viper himself, his signature song "Voices" by Rev Theory, which he's used since 2008, isn't quite his jam, either.

"Rev Theory's great, my song's great," he said. "A lot of people enjoy it. I have never loved, loved, loved it. You see me bouncing my head to New Day's music. When AJ Styles comes to the ring with his music? I'm singing along. Samoa Joe, when he was with us, just the instrumentals. Roman's, The Judgment Day's music. There's music that gets me going. The kind of music I listen to at the gym, the kind of music that pumps me up doesn't really fit Randy Orton the character."

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported in December that new music was considered for The Viper for his return to television, but the idea was ultimately rejected.

Orton backed up that report and added that it was a collaborative effort.

"There is some truth to what you read, but I was just as much behind it as WWE and we were actually working throughout the summer on a new song," he said. "It kind of kept evolving and evolving and when we thought we had something, a higher-up in WWE brass would listen to it and say, 'Eh, it sounds a little like Roman's here, so take that out.'

"It got to a point where we played it at Survivor Series with the intent, like, 'Am I going to come out with a new song tonight?' The decision at the eleventh hour was 'Voices' is just a song people have learned to love. And even though it doesn't get my blood pumping, it gets all of those fans pumping and they know when they hear those first few notes or chords or whatever, they know who's coming down and they know how it makes them feel."

Along with the updated entrance theme, Orton planned to come back with new gear, including kick pads. He eventually decided against that as well, resorting to the mentality of not fixing something that isn't broken.

He isn't sure if the theme song they were working on prior to his return will be released to the public someday but hopes the audience would dig it as much as he does.

"I would love, before it's all said and done, to have some music that gives me goosebumps," Orton said. "Like I said, 'Voices' is great and it makes sense. The words make sense. It was damn near written for me I feel like. Rich from Rev Theory is great and a hell of a singer and no problem with them at all, but it's just not the type of music that pumps up Randy Orton."

WWE Elimination Chamber airs this Saturday, Feb. 24 on Peacock at 5 a.m. ET, while Biography: WWE Legends airs this Sunday, Feb. 25 on A&E at 8 p.m. ET.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.