Randy Orton knows he was given a great opportunity but he worked incredibly hard to prove that it was well-deserved.
Orton was the latest guest on Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin and talked about how he first got into the wrestling business. Orton knows the easy answer would be to say yes, he always wanted to be a wrestler, but getting a shot with WWE was another story. Pointing out that he finally asked his father about breaking into the business when he was 19 years old, Orton said his father being blackballed from “New York” meant Randy wouldn’t get a shot at WWE.
Randy’s father, Bob, didn’t think he had a chance to make it in the company, but as Randy explained it, “all those old-timers that were up there in the office loved my old man” and they ended up giving him a look.
“And they were like, ‘You’ve got a son? How big is he?’ Oh 6’3, 6,4 at the time, whatever I was, 240,250, I was ready to go. They sent me up to Stamford, Dr. Tom [Prichard] puts me in the ring, teaches me how to tie up. This was October in 1999. He asked me to give him a shoulder tackle, which I’ve never done, he takes the bump and immediately goes down, and I thought I’d killed him. He starts rolling and writhing in pain and screaming and I’m like—I don’t know what, I’m in this warehouse in Stamford, I just hurt this guy, oh my god.” Orton explained. “I go back and I’m like [grabs his head] and my dad’s on the phone, they put me on the phone with my dad and I guess while he was selling that shoulder tackle, his brother Bruce called my dad and said, ‘Hey Bob, congratulations, we’re gonna sign him to a developmental deal.’ And then in six months I’d report to OVW. But I was handed this opportunity. And I’m the first one to admit it.”
Randy Orton also talked about his time in developmental in Ohio Valley Wrestling and said the deck was certainly stacked against him, but he worked extremely hard to prove that he deserved the opportunity he was given.
“I go down there a day early, and I knock on the door, they’re having practice, it’s a Sunday, Batista opens the door, he’s like 330 at the time, shaved head, and he’s like, ‘Hey,’ and I’m like, ‘Why am I here?’ And then next thing you know, there’s Shelton Benjamin, I think a few months later, [Brock] Lesnar shows up. Then you get [John] Cena, it was one thing after another. But I had a little bit of heat. You had all these all-Americans, former pro athletes, people like John that lived and breathed this business,” Orton said, “and then you had me, who was just handed this opportunity.”
“I remember we were doing practice one day and Danny Davis is like, ‘Hey, let me see your dropkick.’ I threw my first drop kick. I barely hit the knee caps and everyone’s like, ‘This is Cowboy Bob’s son?’ So I knew I had my work cut out for me. And fast forward a year and a half, and me and Lesnar and two other guys that aren’t doing it no more were the first four to get called up. So I came in there being the s—— and knowing it, and that’s where that fire got lit. And that next 18 months, I made sure that I was going to prove to everybody that I deserve to have this opportunity. And I remember being on the road with a company paid for rental car, Lesnar’s driving, he just looks at me after one of the shows,” Orton explained, “and he goes, can you believe we get paid to do this?”
“Can you imagine Lesnar saying that? But I felt the same way. That was that attitude then,” Orton said. “And we were so lucky to be there, like keep our money. This is life.”
Check out the full episode at this link.
