Folks, the road to WrestleMania 41 is heating up, and just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier, guess who might be slithering back into the ring? That’s right—The Viper himself, Randy Orton, could be making his grand return just in time to RKO his way into another WrestleMania moment.
Orton’s been MIA since November after suffering cervical cord neurapraxia—which is just a fancy way of saying Kevin Owens hit him so hard, doctors had to Google what happened. The injury came after Owens planted Orton with a piledriver, a move so old-school it probably still has dial-up internet. But fear not, Orton fans! According to PWInsider Elite (the elite of insiders, mind you), people within WWE are expecting Orton back by March, just in time for the company’s big European Road to WrestleMania tour.
And if he’s back for that? Well, you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll be back for WrestleMania 41 too. What’s on the table? The most obvious option is Orton vs. Owens, a match fueled by betrayal, piledrivers, and a long history of Canadian violence. But WWE hasn’t confirmed anything yet—probably because Owens has an unsanctioned fight with Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber, and knowing those two, they might not survive it.
If Orton does return for Mania, it’ll be his 19th appearance at WWE’s grandest stage, putting him right behind Triple H (23 appearances) and The Undertaker (27 appearances) on the all-time list. That’s a lot of WrestleManias—more than some WWE fans have birthdays. And let’s not forget, he’s only missed two since his debut at WrestleMania 20 in 2004. If consistency was an RKO, Orton would have hit it outta nowhere for two decades straight.
So, is Kevin Owens about to receive some long-overdue payback? Will Orton return and immediately start punting skulls again? One thing’s for sure: if The Viper is back, no one is safe.