Randy Orton Hitting RKO On WWE Authority Figure Wasn’t Originally Planned

Back in October of 2023, Nick Aldis was officially announced as the new General Manager for Friday Night SmackDown. Aldis has only been on WWE TV for a little over a year, but since then he’s become a key figure on the blue brand.

Randy Orton made his big return to WWE last year at Survivor Series and shortly after he officially signed with SmackDown. The Viper is known for hitting the RKO out of nowhere and he decided to hit SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis with the move immediately after he signed.

Recently Nick Aldis recalled the infamous RKO while speaking with Chris Van Vliet, and he revealed that it wasn’t originally planned for the segment.

“I still feel funny. I know we’re in 2024 but I still feel funny about giving away but it’s like, whatever. I’ve done it now. I can’t not give it to you. It was called on the fly (Randy Orton RKO’ing me). Yeah. Audible… It’s Roman (Reigns), Randy, who’s he gonna sign with… and then, he was gonna sign the SmackDown contract and stare down Roman I think and I think that was it, and then it was like, somebody told somebody told somebody… while I was ringside.

So I had to then go in and call it. Incidentally. I’ve never gotten to the bottom of who was behind it. It’s not because of anything like that (that’s causing me to be hesitant about telling the story). I still feel weird giving away the magic. But again, it seems to have been one of these moments that connects, right? So it’s like, there seems to be a heightened level of interest on that particular moment because it was quite out of the blue. It was really out of the blue, even for me.”

H/T POST Wrestling