Randy Orton Reveals Why He Chose The RKO For His Finisher

Randy Orton spent 18 months sitting on the sidelines, but The Viper finally made his return to WWE when he competed in the men’s WarGames match at Survivor Series. Now that Orton is back he’s hunting down The Bloodline and he seems to be on a collision course with Roman Reigns.

Everyone knows that the RKO can come out of nowhere and Randy Orton has been putting opponents away with the move for decades now. Recently Orton appeared on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, and he explained why he started using the RKO as his finisher.

“Essentially, I blew my shoulders out early in my career, I’ve had three shoulder operations. So, you can go back, and very rarely will you ever see me pick a guy up. If you look in the last 10 years, other than Rey Mysterio, or a Dom, I don’t pick guys up, I don’t do power moves, it’s because I don’t need to do it.

“I can pick up a guy and slam him, my shoulders are healthy and fine, but when I blew them out early on, in my head I’ve got it where I’ve got to protect my shoulders. I go way overboard with protecting my shoulders, because I don’t want to be on the shelf with another shoulder injury, but I know that I don’t need to do it.”

“So I needed a move that I could do to everybody, Rey Mysterio or Omos. I wanted to be able to do that finishing move to everybody, and that was the best choice.”

Orton also confirmed that the RKO was inspired by similar moves such as the Ace Crusher and DDP’s Diamond Cutter. WWE has yet to confirm the match, but it’s rumored that Orton will be facing Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble next month. Stay tuned for updates.

H/T Inside The Ropes