411’s WWE Greatest Moments Report: Randy Orton

-Written: 8.10.26
-Source: A&E
-Run Time: 30 Minutes (w/ commercials)

-Plug: WrestleMania X Retro Review

-Michael Cole is our host!

10. Better Than You
-RAW: Aug. 16, 2004

-Well, they weren’t going to include the match where he won his first World Title, so we get the promo the next night on RAW. It’s the promo where Randy tells us he is better than all of us. “That crowd shit all over me, and it was great.”

9.The Immortal Legend Killer
-SNME July 15, 2006:

-Legend Killer Randy Orton interrupts Hulk Hogan and his daughter, Brooke. Randy offers Brooke a rose and challenges Hogan to a match at SummerSlam. Hogan accepts and they shake hands. Randy then hits on Brooke in the parking lot and Hogan cock blocks and gets an RKO on trunk of a car for his trouble. The SummerSlam match ended up being the last match of Hogan’s WWE career.

8. Playing With Fire
-No Mercy 2005

-The Randy Orton/Undertaker feud started earlier in the year and Taker got the win at Mania. They revisited months later and Randy, with help of his dad, wins a casket match. They dump kerosene on the casket and set it on fire. Orton nearly burns his own face. Coll visual and sent up Taker’s epic return at Survivor Series.

-Commercials!

7. A Family Affair
-RAW: Aug. 27, 2007

-Randy Orton is in a feud with John Cena. He attacks Cena on RAW and teases a punt kick, but instead rolls to the floor and pulls Cena’s dead out of the front row and punts him in the head. Mr. Cena likely loved every second of it. Mr. Cena is a talking head and says he was legit kicked in the head. Good stuff! Mr. Cena taking the punt was much better than what he did with Edge.

6. Three Icons Collide
–WrestleMania XXIV

-Still not sure how we ended up with this match, but whatever. Cena won The Rumble, but burned his Championship Match at No Way Out. Everyone figured Orton was toast here, but he gets the win after punting HHH in the head and covering Cena, who just took a pedigree. It was fine, but didn’t feel big for some reason.

-Commercials!

5. SummerSlam Supremacy
-SummerSlam 2011

-Christian had won the World Title from Orton and it lead to this GREAT MATCH. These two had wonderful chemistry together. Orton says his feud with Christian is top three favorite of him and calls working with Christian a joy. He laughs about the RKO on the steps and says it was Christian’s idea. Checks out!

4.Randy Goes to Hell
-Hell in A Cell 2019

-Jeff Hardy always wanted a Hell in a Cell Match and they finally gave him one against Randy Orton. Man, that red Cell was awful to look at. Speaking of awful to look it, Randy puts a screw driver in the hole in Hardy’s ear and starts cranking. Orton calls it a cool moment. Now, we get power drills to people’s heads. Orton gets the win as Jeff went all out in his first Cella Match.

3. Winner Takes All
-TLC 2013

-Orton and Cena in a TLC Match to unify The World and WWE Titles. This was in the middle of the Daniel Bryan rise and Punk was a month away from walking out. Orton gets the win which makes sense as a heel should win a match like that. I was there in Pittsburgh the next month they faced off again and the crowd hijacked the match. Funny that I was also there for the Orton/Cena Iron Man a few years earlier. They liked giving us Iron Man matches and Cena/Orton matches in Pittsburgh.

-Commercials!

2. The Legend Killer
-Backlash 2004

-Foley vs. Orton! No Holds Barred! Greatest Orton Match of All Time! This match is just awesome and continued a long tradition of Mick Foley getting a young guy over by killing them in a hardcore match. See Sting, Shawn, HHH for previous examples. Orton says it may be his favorite match in his career. It sure put Orton on a different level as he was crazy enough to take the bump into the thumbtacks.

1. The Greatest RKO
-WrestleMania 31

-Really? Cool spot and all, but the greatest moment in Orton’s career? Kayfabe wise the win over Cena to unify the Titles should be number one. ORton doesn’t even call it the greatest RKO and says it is one of the best. It made me jump out of my seat as it was that awesome, but as his top moment? Nah!

-Fun list even with a weird choice for the top spot. I want to go back and watch that Backlash match again. I was surprised neither of his Rumble wins were included. He has won so many World Titles it would be redundant to keep putting them on the list, so I appreciate the variety. Thanks for reading!