WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2023 will likely be best remembered for the shocking return of CM Punk but that wasn’t the only major comeback featured on the Premium Live Event. After more than 18 months away from WWE due to a major back injury, Randy Orton returned to the ring in the Men’s WarGames match where he, Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, and Seth Rollins emerged victorious over Drew McIntyre and The Judgement Day.
Since his return, Orton has picked up his full-time career right where he left it off – becoming a fully-fledged member of the SmackDown roster and reportedly being set for a huge feud with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns down the line. But things didn’t always look so optimistic for the future of The Viper’s career.
While appearing on the latest episode of Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Orton opened up about the severe back issues he was facing before his 18-month WWE absence, which were so bad that he physically couldn’t have a singles match at that time, and how his former RK-Bro tag team partner Matt Riddle helped ease those issues in the ring.
“I changed a lot of stuff in this last 18 months. I really needed the time, I had a lot of ailments. I couldn’t stand for more than a couple of minutes without having pain shoot down my legs. When I would sit, I had a disc that was slipping every time I would bend so on a plane sitting here, my feet would go numb and I’d have pain shooting down my legs. Oh, it really sucked. It really was hard.
“That last year, before I had to leave because of the back, I was in a tag team with former WWE superstar Matt Riddle. I gotta give him props because that year we tagged together, I was not able to be in that ring unless I was in there with someone like him because he was able to take the brunt of the physicality. He’d tag me at the end. I’d come in, do my shit and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have made it that far.
“But I had some great doctors, they fixed me up right, they didn’t cut through any muscle which would enable me to get back in the ring because once you start cutting muscle, that’s never gonna heal back, you’re done.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit Impaulsive.