Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler. He has been signed to WWE since 2000, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of WWE's greatest professional wrestlers, Orton has the tied-third most world championship reigns in history, and a career spanning over 20 years.
Orton is a third-generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Bob Orton, father Bob Orton Jr., and uncle Barry Orton were all wrestlers. Before being signed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he trained in and wrestled for the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Association-Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling (MMWA-SICW). He was then signed by the WWF and was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he held the OVW Hardcore Championship twice.
Orton debuted on the main roster in 2002, soon joining the Evolution stable, and as part of the group, became the youngest world champion in WWE history after he won WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2004. He was kicked out of the stable as a result, and entered singles competition. Orton has held the WWE Championship 10 times and the World Heavyweight Championship four times. He was the final holder of the World Heavyweight Championship, which he unified with the WWE Championship to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion in 2013. In total, he has won 20 championships in WWE. Since 2021, he holds the record of most pay-per-view (PPV) matches in WWE.
Randal Keith Orton was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on April 1, 1980, to a family of mostly German ancestry. His mother Elaine was a nurse and his father Bob Orton Jr. was a professional wrestler. Orton is a grandson of Bob Orton and nephew of Barry Orton, both professional wrestlers. He has a younger brother named Nathan, who is a stand-up comedian, and a younger sister named Rebecca. Knowing the hardships of life as a professional wrestler, his parents tried to convince him to stay away from the business and his father warned him that life in the ring meant a life on the road and away from family.
Orton attended Hazelwood Central High School, where he was an amateur wrestler. After graduating in 1998, he enlisted with the United States Marine Corps. At the base, he received a bad conduct discharge in 1999 after going AWOL on two occasions and disobeying an order from a commanding officer. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he was tried and convicted under a special court-martial, subsequently spending 38 days in the brig at Camp Pendleton. He previously had a Marine tattoo on his left arm, but covered it up after receiving his bad conduct discharge.
Training and early career (2000–2001)
Orton made his wrestling debut in 2000 at the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Association-Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling (MMWA-SICW) in St. Louis, Missouri, an offshoot of the historic St. Louis Wrestling Club headed by Sam Muchnick. There, he was trained by both the staff of the promotion and his father, Bob Orton Jr. He wrestled for the promotion where he performed with wrestlers such as Ace Strange and Mark Bland. Orton also refereed a few matches with World Organized Wrestling (WOW), a promotion where his uncle Barry Orton worked.
World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2000–present)
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2000–2002)
In 2000, Orton signed a deal with the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was sent to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in Louisville, Kentucky, where he continued his training. During his time in OVW, he wrestled the likes of Rico Constantino and The Prototype. He won the OVW Hardcore Championship twice by defeating Mr. Black on February 14, 2001, and Flash Flanagan on May 5, 2001, respectively. On several occasions he faced Rico Constantino and The Prototype (John Cena). Orton in considered part of the OVW Class of 2002 as part of what has now been dubbed as the "OVW 4" alongside the aforementioned Cena as well as Brock Lesnar and Dave Bautista.
One of Orton's first official WWF appearances was March 16, 2002, at WrestleMania X8's Fan Axxess, where he was defeated by Tommy Dreamer. Orton's first televised WWF match was a victory against Hardcore Holly on SmackDown! on April 25, 2002. Soon after, Orton became a face and was placed in a rivalry with Holly. In September 2002, Orton was traded to the Raw brand, where he defeated Stevie Richards in his debut on the show. Within weeks of his debut on the Raw brand, Orton suffered a shoulder injury, leaving him sidelined for months. While recovering, Orton still appeared on Raw in his own Randy News Network (RNN) segment, a weekly vignette featuring him talking about his condition. The show interrupted other segments of Raw programming, which caused Orton to slowly transition himself into a narcissistic and self-centered heel.
After his injury healed, Orton joined the Evolution stable, which consisted of Ric Flair, Triple H, and OVW alumnee Batista. He was injured once again in February 2003, and returned on May 26, 2003. The group was pushed on Raw from 2003 to 2004, with the height of their dominance occurring after Armageddon in 2003 when all of the men's titles on Raw were held by Evolution members. In 2003, Orton spent much of his time helping Triple H overcome challenges for the World Heavyweight Championship. He joined Triple H in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam on August 24, involved primarily to secure Triple H's title defense, and was eliminated by Goldberg, but the stable managed to fulfill its purpose and Triple H went on to eliminate Goldberg and retain his title.
Orton then began proclaiming himself the "Legend Killer", with his gimmick becoming that of a young upstart who was so talented that he touted himself as the future of wrestling. He embarked on numerous feuds with older, well-respected names in wrestling and gained infamy for blatantly disrespecting them. With the help of his stablemate and mentor Ric Flair, Orton defeated Shawn Michaels at Unforgiven on September 21 in the first of many high-profile matches billed as "Legend vs. Legend Killer". During this time, Orton began using the move that became his signature finisher, the RKO, a jumping cutter named after his initials. He defeated Rob Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship at Armageddon on December 14. With this win, Orton started the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in seven years, holding the title for 210 days. Orton continued to establish himself as a "Legend Killer" throughout 2004, challenging the semi-retired wrestler Mick Foley. Famed for his brutal hardcore matches, they wrestled in a hardcore match at Backlash for the title, where Orton won. Orton named this match as the favourite of his career, also noticing it was the match where he earned the respect of the fans. On July 11 at Vengeance, he lost the title to Edge.
World Heavyweight Champion (2004–2005)
After losing the Intercontinental Championship, Orton won the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam on August 15 when he defeated Chris Benoit, thus becoming the youngest world champion in WWE history at the age of 24. Benoit congratulated Orton after the match, shaking his hand for showing the ability to "be a man". The following night on Raw, Evolution attacked Orton in the ring, resulting in Orton being kicked out of Evolution. A month later, Orton lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Triple H at Unforgiven on September 12.
The storyline with Evolution continued when he defeated Flair at Taboo Tuesday on October 19 in a fan-voted steel cage match and won four-on-four Survivor Series elimination match at Survivor Series on November 14 where he picked up the win for his team by last eliminating Triple H. He continued to feud with Triple H, using his authority to place his opponents at severe disadvantages during title defenses. He tried to win the World Heavyweight Championship at New Year's Revolution on January 9, 2005 in an Elimination Chamber match and the Royal Rumble on January 30, but both times was defeated by Triple H.