Randy Orton’s Wrestling Future Uncertain After Fusion Surgery

At WWE Survivor Series, Randy Orton will return to the ring in War Games. This could be a tough fight for The Viper, who has been out of the ring for over a year due to back issues.

In fact, some, including Kurt Angle, feared he would never be able to wrestle again.

Randy Orton’s last match occurred when he and Matt Riddle lost the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship to Jimmy and Jey Uso on the May 20, 2022 episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown.

It culminated in a tag team title unification match. Orton has not been active in the ring since his back fusion surgery.

His return to the ring is imminent as he will join Cody Rhodes’ WarGames team at WWE Survivor Series 2023.

On a recent episode of the “Kurt Angle Show” podcast, Angle shared his feelings about his friend’s impending return.

“It’s about time. I’m just glad he did [return] because I was communicating with him for quite some time when he was out with the injury because Kim [Orton] and Giovanna [Angle] are best friends.

He was telling me, ‘Hey, man, it’s not looking good. I don’t know how my back is going to heal if my back’s going to heal.’

so he was a little worried about it for a while, and eventually it started to heal up, and now I think he’s okay, but it was pretty serious for some time.“

“They didn’t know [if Orton would return]. Randy, he’s young, too. I mean he’s in his 40s, but he’s still pretty young.

[Compared to] me and other guys that are wrestling like Sting in his 60s and Chris Jericho in his 50s. So yeah, he’s still young. He still has a good six or seven years if he stays healthy.”

Angle said he stayed in touch with Randy throughout his recovery process. At one point, Orton was unsure if his hip would fully recover, questioning his ability to return to professional wrestling.

Randy Orton first competed in Survivor Series 20 years ago, leading Eric Bischoff’s team to victory over Stone Cold Steve Austin’s team.

In the early stages of his career, Orton was often the last contender and proved his ability to survive. His recent return to WWE is no different.