Randy Orton Was Told He’d Have to Stop Wrestling After Back Injury

In an interview with SportsKeeda WrestleBinge (via Fightful), Randy Orton revealed that he was told by neurologists he would have to stop wrestling after suffering a back injury. Orton went on hiatus in May 2022 and eventually had spinal fusion surgery. He wouldn’t return until November 2023 at Survivor Series.

He said: “Oh yeah. I had top neurologists telling me that, you know what, you use a great career, you have a life after wrestling, and you want to be comfortable. You don’t want to be in pain the rest of your life. We’re gonna fix your back, but you’re gonna have to stop wrestling. The six months that I was out, I had that in the back of my head, and it was tough. It was mentally very challenging, and I didn’t really know what the future held for me. But I was able to find a couple doctors that had done the exact surgery that I needed on some MMA guys that went back to the octagon, competed and were successful and had longer careers. So I knew that these were the doctors that I needed to have put me under and go under the knife with.“