Randy Orton Violently Unmasks Rey Mysterio During SmackDown Main Event

Randy Orton is back to finding new vicious ways to brutalize his opponents, and on SmackDown Live [...]

By Connor Casey

Randy Orton is back to finding new vicious ways to brutalize his opponents, and on SmackDown Live this week Rey Mysterio was the latest victim of one of Orton's attacks.

Orton and Mysterio squared off for the first time on the Blue Brand in roughly 12 years in Tuesday night's main event. After a quick back-and-forth match, "The Viper" came out on top after nailing Mysterio with an RKO while the luchador attempted a sliding splash outside the ring.

But Orton wasn't finished. He pulled out a steel chair and wrapped it around Mysterio's head and drove him straight into one of the steel posts outside the ring. He then ripped Mysterio's mask off his head. The camera never gave a full shot of Mysterio's face, and referees were quick to throw a towel over his head as the show went off the air.

This is far from the first time Mysterio's mask has been taken off. He infamously lost it back in his WCW days during a feud with Kevin Nash and had it ripped off a couple of times during his feud with Chris Jericho over the Intercontinental Championship in 2009. But with the exception of certain photos on social media, WWE usually goes out of their way to keep Mysterio's true appearance a secret.

After a brief hiatus over the summer to recover from surgery, Orton returned to WWE television at Extreme Rules in July and immediately turned heel by attacking Jeff Hardy. Over the next few months Orton made a habit out of attacking his opponents in bizarre and often uncomfortable ways, including repeatedly twisting Jeff Hardy's gauged earlobes with a screwdriver and snapping Tye Dillinger's fingers.

Mysterio made his full-time return to WWE back in October at the SmackDown 1000 event, and began feuding with Orton shortly after by beating him in a match during the World Cup tournament at the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.

Orton was absent from the Survivor Series card on Sunday, but given he's on the SmackDown roster it was probably for the best. The Blue Brand was completely swept by Monday Night Raw on the show's main card, including the traditional five-on-five men's elimination tag team match. Mysterio took part in that match, but was one of four competitors to be quickly eliminated by Braun Strowman.

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