Randy Orton Talks Biography: WWE Legends Premiere, Addresses Injury, Pivotal Moments, and More

After making his long-awaited return at Survivor Series, Randy Orton hit the ground running and has continued to be in the main event picture on WWE SmackDown. That leads us to this weekend, which is a big one for the Viper, as he will have a chance to secure a WrestleMania Title shot at Elimination Chamber. Then on Sunday Orton will be in the spotlight again as the subject of Biography: WWE Legends’ season premiere. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to Orton ahead of the anticipated premiere, and Orton confirmed that they were filming during the early part of his time away from WWE, which was a time when Orton wasn’t sure if he would ever get to return to the ring.

“Well, as far as the documentary goes, we did film all of it. In fact, while I was out, and they followed me around to a doctor appointment in the middle of that first six months when I was out after Riddle and I dropped the titles to the Usos,” Orton said. “And they were around when I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to be able to return to the ring. It was still up in the air. So I believe some of it will be documented. I saw an early version, but I know that they’ve made a lot of cuts since then, so I honestly am not quite sure everything that’s going to be discussed.”

The episode will also dive into other aspects of Orton’s life, including a critical point in time when he was discharged from the Marine Corps at the age of 19. While he has spoken about that in the past, Orton really opens up about what led to that event and what happened in detail.

“But I do know that it was important to me that I talk about the Marine Corps and the bad conduct discharge when I was 19 years old, because I’ve always been really open about that, but I haven’t dived into why, what happened, what led up to the bad conduct discharge,” Orton said. “So I think that’ll just get people to understand where I was coming from a little bit more, maybe humanize me a little bit and get people to relate, because maybe they would’ve done the same thing if they were in my situation.”

“As far as not being sure about returning to the ring, it was rough. For about six months I was home, and I was in a lot of pain, and I was trying to find the doctor or doctors that were going to be able to fix my spine and make me more durable than ever and able to be an athlete again,” Orton said. “And the problem is a spinal fusion is usually reserved for elderly, slash obese people. And when it’s done, it’s a hack job. They cut through muscle, and your core is never the same. You’re never really the same, and to be an athlete after a spinal fusion just isn’t in the cards.”

Thankfully a new technique allowed Orton to not just return to the ring but return better than ever. “But there are some new techniques out there. There’s some hardware that was just invented less than a decade ago, and I had the privilege of having three different doctors, one that invented the hardware that’s on the back of my spine. A frontal approach specialist, she went in through my stomach and basically dissected me like a frog by peeling the fascia back,” Orton said.

“They didn’t cut through any muscle, because when you cut through muscle and then you stitch it back together, that muscle never heals like it once was, and it’ll render you a non-athlete. It’ll make things difficult. Your body will never function quite the same. And the core is very, very important. It helps you do everything, especially if you’re in that wrestling ring. So because of what they did during that surgery, I was able to recover and then strengthen to where I was able to do things in the gym that I hadn’t been able to do since I was in my late twenties,” Orton said.

Biography: WWE Legends begins a new season on Sunday, February 25th at 9/8 PM CST.

Who do you want to see Orton take on next? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!