Randy Orton has earned a lot of praise for his promos in recent months, and he recently reflected on how much his ability on the microphone has grown since just last year.
In an appearance on “The Broken Skull Sessions,” Orton revealed that he only realized how important promos are in 2020, nearly 20 years after his WWE debut.
“I’ve been around, but the promos, they were always mediocre, and I was concentrating on the in-ring stuff, and I did that for years,” said Orton. “And I think it was Michael Hayes, not too long ago, he said, ‘Randy, if you look at all the guys that have had a Hall of Fame career, they were all good workers but [they] could cut a good promo, a great promo. They were great on the mic. You’re not great on the mic, but you’re kinda in that mix, and that’s odd to me.’
“And he said that to me and it’s like, I need to give this more thought….The relationship I have with Michael, we’re very upfront with each other. So it didn’t piss me off, per se, but it’s almost like, for years, I didn’t want to hear it. When he would say my promos were the s—-, I didn’t want to hear it. I knew that I was good enough to get by and do my thing.”
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Orton then explained that he didn’t fully appreciate the importance of promos until early last year, when he started feuding with Edge. “The Viper” described how this rivalry allowed him to tap into real feelings and deliver the best promos of his career.
“I realized about a year ago how important promos were,” said Orton. “It’s embarrassing to say that it took me that long to realize that. I think the fact that they were decent, it was enough to get by.
“That story that we tell, that constant thread throughout the show, what we say on the mic is so important when it comes to that, almost more important than the matches sometimes and I found a way, through the little bit of acting that I have done, I found a way to kinda make it to where I can feel what I’m talking about. When it first touched close to home was when I was working about a year ago with Edge.”
“The Viper” recalled how he took a different direction with the storyline because he “wasn’t feeling” the way Vince McMahon wanted him to characterize his frindship with Edge. Instead, Orton stated that he incorporated his real-life first meeting with Edge, which came when the third-generation star was only 19 years old.
“Vince wanted me to say some s—- were me and Edge went way back,” said Orton. “It was just bull——, trying to find a way to bridge the friendship between me and Edge. And I went to Vince 10 minutes before I was going to cut this promo and I said, ‘Vince, I’m not feeling this.’
“I go, ‘But when I was 19 in St. Louis and I met Edge, and I just signed a developmental deal, and Edge came up to me and he said, ‘Maybe one day we’ll be able to mix it up,’ you know, ‘Good luck to you, kid.’ And I remember that as a 19-year-old, and now here we are 20 years later. That’s real, and I was able to take that, add a little bit of window dressing on it and make it something that I truly felt.”
The full episode of Orton’s appearance on “The Broken Skull Sessions” is available now on Peacock and WWE Network.
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