Randy Orton Reveals Era of His Career He’s Most Proud of

When Randy Orton looks back on his career, many fans probably hope that doing a TKO-mandated angle with Pat McAfee won’t be the part that he thinks is his greatest time ever.

So what will be? In a pre-WrestleMania interview with Ultimatekiko at Culture Kings in Las Vegas, many of the live fans in attendance chanted out “2009” as their favorite period of his career. Orton, however, had a different answer as to what he thought his best era was.

“I mean, people talk about the ’09 Randy Orton, and I get where they’re coming from with that,” he said. “But like, I remember like during COVID, like I’ve heard a few of the guys say like, Oh, you know, I held it down during COVID. Well, during COVID, I was at every show. I was champ. I I think I punted more people in the head during COVID.”

Obliquely referring to COVID-era opponents like Andrade and Edge, he noted, “I think there’s like a list of like five guys that I kicked in the face and then they went to the other team.” (Ric Flair, Ricochet, and Christian would probably make up the rest of the five.)

Comparing 2020 to 2009, he said, “Yeah, I did a lot of cool shit during COVID, and I was a bad guy through and through. I was the Viper and ’09, maybe half you guys weren’t even born then. So I think 2020 or 21, whatever year that was. I enjoy that version of the Viper, but we’re just getting started in ’26. So the idea would be 2026, to be the version of the Viper that everybody wants to see.”