Randy Orton Interview 25.3.2011
Posted by David Damage on Thursday, November 17, 2011
Under: Interview
Randy Orton recently spoke with ESPN.com about his babyface turn, the WWE All-Stars game and more. Check out the highlights:
On his face turn: When you go from being a good guy to a bad guy or
vice versa like I did, everyone always tells you, "Don't change, don't
change." And in my case, the less change the better because what really
happened is the fans turned me. This wasn't some master plan where all
of a sudden I was going to be a good guy, I just started getting a lot
of fan support. It's a fine line because I wasn't going out there like
John Cena high-fiving kids and hugging grandmas and pumping my fist and
smiling ... if I would've done that, I would've failed tremendously,
kind of like it did back in 2004, when I became the youngest champion in
WWE history. That didn't work at all because I changed so much. So it's
really about looking at your character, seeing what people like about
me, like about my character, and seeing how much I can change without
changing too much and walking that fine line. I think I've done a pretty
good job. I'm definitely still learning on the job, though. It took me
about five years to get really comfortable as a bad guy, as a heel, and I
expect to take another couple of years as a good guy to really come
into my own, but I'm definitely on the right path."
On The Rock
vs. John Cena: "I know them both, and I know Cena a lot better than I
know The Rock, obviously, but I've been in the ring with both cutting
promos and wrestling. I have to say, though, talking about the whole
ring rust thing, John Cena has had about 2,000 matches in the last seven
years. The Rock? A big, fat zero. So when it comes to ring rust, I
don't care what type of athlete you are, and The Rock is obviously an
athletic dude, but Cena has been in the ring. He's been at every show
and in every show and making appearances and he has been on the road
with the WWE over 300 days a year for the last seven years. The Rock?
Virtually non-existent. You see the interviews that The Rock does and he
says that he doesn't want to be known as a wrestler. He doesn't want to
be known as a sports entertainer or a performer with WWE or a WWE
superstar. He wants to be known as an actor. Now all of a sudden he's
back in our world telling the fans what they want to hear. He's telling
them: "I promise that I will never go away again. I promise that I'm
back for good and that I'm here to stay." He said that, what, six or
seven weeks ago? Have we even seen him live since then? No. Via
satellite. I think Cena will own The Rock. I think Cena is wittier and
can go off the cuff. Cena writes his own stuff while The Rock has stuff
written for him. It just all comes down to who you are in the ring and
what kind of performer you are in the ring, and I think Cena is ten
times the performer in the ring that The Rock is. This Monday in
Chicago, he'll prove it."
In : Interview