Randy Orton On Being Ready For The World Title At 24 – “No F***ing Way”
On August 15th 2004 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada, Randy Orton became the youngest WWE World Champion in history winning the World Heavyweight Championship aged just 24.
Appearing on the Broken Skull Sessions with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Randy Orton reflected on his historic victory. When asked if he was ready to carry the belt at such a young age, Orton had a simple answer, “no f***ing way.”
“[Was I ready?] Not at all, no f***ing way. I was getting that confidence. I knew enough and I was surrounded by the right people and had the right knowledge bestowed upon me to where I was ready, but I wasn’t, and I didn’t know I wasn’t until I realised I wasn’t, but everyone else knew I wasn’t and next thing you know 30 days later – I forget the pay-per-view – I lose it. I had a nice deal with him [Triple H], and Evolution turned on me – I think – the night after this. […] I did [transition from being heel to being a babyface] and I didn’t have a clue. They put me in this role as a babyface, I’m the world champion and now I feel like I have to change everything. Now I know how to stay true to myself and how to y’know it’s not about changing when you turn. It’s the little nuances, it’s the facial expressions, it’s your demeanour, it’s how you walk to the ring. It’s all those things but I thought every mannerism I had, had to change and that’s where I f***ed myself.”
Orton would lose the world championship to Triple H just a month later at Unforgiven.
While The Legend Killer now stands as a 14-time WWE World Champion and someone who has being performing on WWE television for nearly 20 years, he’s also revealed that he’s not quite ready to hang up his boots just yet.
Orton commented that he wants to be around for as long as possible, “this is what I wanna do. I am a professional wrestler.”
“At 40, I want to wrestle another decade if I can. So I know, it’s [working out] not about getting my pecs out here like Bobby Lashley and Batista’s. It’s about making sure my shoulder stays in its socket. I just need to maintain. It’s all about longevity for me man, I wanna be able to do this as long as I can.
I don’t see branching off to do this, or that, or the other like a lot of guys do. This is my home, this is what I wanna do. I am a professional wrestler.”
Meanwhile back to the present day and Orton is set to face The Fiend at WrestleMania 37 following a confrontation between the two on RAW.
Find out everything you need to know about this year’s WrestleMania here.