Randy Orton talks Gunther, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, more

[Chris]

Randy Orton 'ready to play the Shawn Michaels role' against Gunther

It is 20 years since Orton become the youngest WWE champion ever by beating Chris Benoit at SummerSlam and he is no less hungry for his 15th crown than he was for the first.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Yeah, good Gunther. He’s a special talent. There’s no one else like him. He’s as unique as they get. And he was very seasoned. He’s, not a young pup, he’s 36 but, but that’s not a bad thing.

I think that he’s right smack dab in the middle of his prime. He’s been able to wrestle so many different places, different styles, different talent. And if you look, you talk about his body at work, but look at his physical body. He’s also really busted his ass to get into good shape.

He moved so well in there for a big man, but at the same time he might as well be 300 pounds and six foot 10, because he the way he moves, the way he is able to work in there with with another human being, he can really torture them and punish them and get that crowd to feel sorry for that other person. He’s an amazing bad guy.

But I think what’s going to be really interesting about this match Berlin is the crowd is probably going to be a little bit on his side. I think there’s going to be some Randy Orton fans in the crowd, but I think it might be split. You know, he’s a big Austrian boy. Austria is right next to Germany, man, and those German fans are going to love them some counter. So I’m actually bringing my wife over because I don’t want her to miss the atmosphere that’s going to take place at that show on the 31st. It’s going to be insane.

AM: One of the first people that really put you on the map as a main event, like the first few that you won as a champion, was with Shawn Michaels. You're going to be playing the role as spoiler for Gunther, the first huge name next to his first title reign. How important is that first real competitor for the title?

RO: The fact that we’ve been able to touch already in Saudi at the King of the Ring in the finals there, it just makes me even more confident that we’ll really have great chemistry, like I already know that we’re going to have great chemistry. So knowing that going in, and knowing how important this match is, not only for him, but for me too.

I’m always out there feeling like I have something to prove. I haven’t had a Main Event PLE match at almost four years. I didn’t realize it had been that long, plenty of PLE since then, but not one of this caliber. So yeah, the crowd is going to be hot and this is going to be a big night. I would love to see us main event this show.

But I know Cody and Kevin, that’s a big, big match too, but you've got a couple good guys in there beating the sh** out of each other. I think me and Gunther should close the night. And I think that it’s going to go down in history is, whether or not I win or lose. People will be talking about this match for a long time, and I know that, because Gunther is such an amazing talent.

AM: Do you recall anything in particular that you took from having Shawn as your first challenger?

RO: When I was in that position, I was so young, I was just doing what they told me and doing it to the best of my ability, but to be able to really let it marinate and understand how important what Shawn did for me was, I don’t think I realized it till years later.

But if that was 2007, I had been going for about four or five years and being pushed, I had the rocket strapped to my back. And I can see a lot of similarities between me and Gunther. Gunther is in the same position, but he’s more seasoned. He’s a little older than I was back then, and I think he’s got a great head on his shoulders, and I think he’s going to know what to do with it.

And I think that, like I said, win, lose, or draw for me, or comforter, I feel like this is going to elevate him his career. And that’s what this business is all about, it’s definitely things come back and it’s my turn to give back, it’s my turn to play that role as Shawn Michaels, not necessarily to go out there and give Gunther the win.

I want to walk out of Berlin with that title. But it’s just an important match. This could be the very beginning of Gunther’s run, or this could be where it gets stopped dead in this track.

AM: You’ve mentioned previously about maybe wanting to face Cena at WrestleMania at one point, and maybe that you were both going for the 17th world title. Have you spoken to John, or will you about having a match on this retirement tour that he seems to be going on?

RO: I have spoken with him. John and I, we’ve always been kind of cut from the same cloth when it comes to creative. There’s some guys that will come with a 10 page, script on the next six months of the storyline and blogging them and a particular talent, and it’s like a wish list for how they see the future playing out.

We have a whole team of writers. We’ve got Triple H at the helm, and we’re very lucky to have them at the helm, by the way. And you know, whatever they give me, I’m going to do my best with, and that’s the way John looks at it, too. So me and him are two guys that are going to let it organically happen.

And the way that Triple H is doing it, he’s listening to the crowd. He knows where everything needs to end up. He can tell week to week where it’s going in it. And if the fans want John Cena and Randy Orton to face each other at some point, maybe even at Wrestlemania, then this is their last chance.

So if you want it, let’s hear it. They can go to social media, they can talk about how much they want it, they can chant at the shows. And I think that if the fans want it, then it’s definitely going to happen.

But as far as what do I personally want? I would love to wrestle John. But as far as pushing for that match, that’s never been my style, that’s never been seen as my style. And I think if it’s meant to be, if it’s in the stars, then we’ll definitely do it, and we’ll have a lot of fun doing so well. I want it, so I’ll get it started for you, don’t worry about that.

AM: In that long injury you had we didn’t get to see the climax of you and Riddle together, or even you at WrestleMania 39. Do you recall where that payoff was heading? There was that over the horizon, or, what you might have done at that Wrestlemania? I know you were so far away when you got injured, but did you know what the end goal was for yourself? And Riddle is essentially what I’m asking for, what you wanted.

RO: I was in such bad shape, man, that last year or so that I was teaming with Riddle. It was everything that I had in me to get out there and even stand on the apron, and when he tagged me in, I’d come in, I’d blow a comeback, maybe hit an RKO, but that was about all I could physically accomplish.

So Riddle, I owe Riddle a lot, man, he’s a good dude, because of him going out there every night and taking the brunt of the punishment in those matches, I was able to extend my career longer than it should have went with that injury that I had in my lower back, and that was just wear and tear over the course of about a decade. It was bad all through my 30s.

I was in pain more or less from my early 30s into my early 40s. And I got so lucky with the doctors that I found. And it took me about six months to find the doctors that were going to be able to put me back together without causing too much trauma on the inside, and that’s the thing. With a spinal fusion, most spinal fusions are just hatch of jobs. They just need to cut through, get to the spine. Those doctors fix the spine. They’re not necessarily worried about the surrounding tissue, and these doctors understood that they couldn’t cut through any of my muscles, especially the muscle in my core, because muscle, after it’s been severed, although you can stitch it together and it will heal back together, it’s not going to function at all like it used to.

So they were able to go around, kind of dissect me like a frog, and peel the fascia back through my stomach, and they fix my spine like through my stomach. And without cutting any muscle, I was able to heal up, get stronger.

I put on 40, 50, pounds, mostly of muscle, but, yeah, no, there’s a lot of muscle there. There’s also some good old home style cooking. My wife likes to cook.

I was going to try and see if I could push my weight up to 300 pounds. I got to like 293 a couple weeks ago. But I think I’m going to go ahead and stop it there. I need to drop a few pounds before I wrestle Gunther so I can move.