Randy Orton Speaks On The Over 40 Club, His WWE Life, Benoit, More

The Herald Sun in Australia has an interview up with Randy Orton. Highlights are below.

On what he wants to bring to wrestling: I’m young, I’m good at what I do. Hopefully, me being young and good at what I do opens the door for other people in this business who are at a young age and accelerating at a high rate. Talent like Mr Kennedy, John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Brian Kendrick and Paul London. I would like to take the game away from the guys in the over 40 club -Triple H, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. It’s at the point where their bodies are so broken down, they can’t really hang with the younger guys. We have our injuries, we make our mistakes – personal and professional – and we learn from them. What I would like to bring to the industry is the next generation of men and women to represent athleticism, attitude, charisma, and the overall perception of being young talent as opposed to (laughs) old, balding talent.

On his daily WWE life: It’s rough and it’s tiring. I had three hours sleep last night, not because I chose to go out, but because that’s what we were allotted to have. We don’t have an off-season and we pay for our own rental cars, food and hotels. My expenses are well over $US100,000 ($113,500), sometimes double that. But I spend that so I can work here. They say we are self-employed but, at the same time, we have to be somewhere on time, and we have to dress a certain way. Obviously, I’m a bit of a rebel (Orton grins and tugs on the Gold’s Gym singlet he is wearing), but f— the dress code. It’s retarded. The travel sucks, injuries suck but you can’t complain because where else do you go to wrestle? Where else do you go to be on TV in tights, with knee pads and shark skin boots and have people go: `Yay!’? Nowhere! You don’t bitch because this is the only place to make money doing what we do.

On being a face vs. being a heel: Being a babyface sucks, unless you’re 300 pounds like Batista, or a character everbody wants to see live, like The Undertaker, or Hulk Hogan, who has charisma. Maybe it’s because I’m not good at it, or I’m a d—head in real life. It’s easy for me to go out there and be a pr-ck on the show because it’s me times 10. And even though you probably don’t like me anyway, give me five minutes, and I’ll make you not like me more. Being a heel is fun. It comes so natural.

On the Chris Benoit tragedy: I guess you never know somebody like you think you do, that’s for sure. I never saw him killing his family or himself. Whatever his personal problems, his personal demons were – I can’t tell you, I don’t know. I don’t anyone will ever know except for God and Chris. But it was heavy enough to cause him to do what he did. The lesson is – you don’t know anybody like you think you do.

Check out the full interview here.