Joe Hendry shed light on when his WrestleMania plans came together.
Randy Orton was originally scheduled to face Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, but on April 4th, Owens announced that he needed to undergo neck surgery for a severe injury and the WrestleMania match was off. On the April 18th edition of SmackDown, Orton announced that he would be issuing an open challenge for someone to face him at WrestleMania, leading to plenty of speculation as to who his opponent would be.
On the night, fans were shocked and delighted to see Orton’s open challenge answered by TNA Champion Joe Hendry, and reports indicate that it was Orton himself who chose Hendry to fill the role.
Speaking in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Hendry revealed that he found out about his WrestleMania appearance a week ahead of time, saying:
“I found out about [WrestleMania] a week before. I had to sit on this for a week. I got a text from Triple H, saying, can you talk… Triple H says, ‘Listen, I’m sure you’re aware that, Randy needs an opponent.’ And yeah, that threw me off completely. I was in a state of shock, but I just knew there was a job to be done.”
“What An Honor To Share The Ring With Randy Orton” – Joe Hendry
Continuing, Hendry spoke about being honored to face Orton on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
“It was a huge moment for me, and what an honor to share the ring with Randy Orton. I just wrestled Randy Orton at WrestleMania. What is going on?”
"I found out about [WrestleMania] a week before. I had to sit on this for a week. I got a text from Triple H, saying, can you talk… Triple H says, 'Listen, I'm sure you're aware that, Randy needs an opponent.' And yeah, that threw me off completely. I was in a state of shock,… pic.twitter.com/ztW5WbV1t5
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 23, 2025
Also in the interview, Joe Hendry teased something big for his WWE return.