The Next Rock?
Randy Orton's loyalty to wrestling keeps him in the ring.
By Mike Osegueda / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, January 27, 2005, 6:44 AM)
Let's say you're Randy Orton.
Your grandpa, Bob Orton Sr., was a professional wrestler. Your dad, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, was a professional wrestler. Both were legends. So when you're 5, you decide that when you grow up you want to be a professional wrestler, too. No pressure.
So you start wrestling and you get thrown into a group named Evolution with Triple H and Ric Flair, two modern-day wrestling legends. Pressure? Naw. No problem.
So you're 24, a couple years into your career, and you capture the world championship belt. You're the youngest champion ever. No pressure. Smooth sailing all the way.
So you start headlining pay-per-view events, including Sunday's Royal Rumble at the Save Mart Center, which will be watched live by millions of people all over the world. You're going to fight your once-ally, now-rival Triple H, who beat you and took the title from you. Pressure yet? Of course not. Yet somewhere in the middle of all this, people start to take notice, and the whispers start:
That Randy Orton, he's something.
He's the guy whose going to lead this company someday.
He's the future.
OK, OK, that's where the pressure hits.
"There wasn't really much pressure being a third-generation wrestler," Orton says. "This is definitely pressure."
That's why being Randy Orton takes strength. And not just because his job is to beat up men well over 6 feet tall and 250 pounds. The kind of strength that comes from shouldering colossal expectations.
He grew up in the business. Like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. in baseball, he was the kid soaking it all up from his grandpa, his dad and his uncle, Barry Orton.
Young Randy figured out early that wrestling was what he wanted to do. All from watching Dad.
"It was like an adventure he'd have," Orton says. "He'd come home 10-20 days later and he'd have gifts from Japan. Daddy's traveling the world. That's what I wanted to do and get paid to do."
He's done it. And he's done it well.
After being hindered by injuries early in his career, he won the WWE's intercontinental championship in 2003 and defended it while earning a reputation as a "legend killer," beating the likes of Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley.
Then in August, he won the world championship.
"Everything was going on in my head," Orton says about the night he defeated Chris Benoit to become champion. "I never realized it until then that that was as accomplishment greater than my dad, my uncle or my grandfather ever had, and they were in the business 10 times longer than me."
It wasn't long before Orton began to draw comparisons to another young wrestler who took the industry by storm, The Rock.
Both are third-generation stars.
Both were young champions.
Both are big, physical guys able to unleash butt-kickings on demand (Orton is 6-4, 245 pounds), and have the charisma and good looks that draw in female fans.
And both were branded with the same label: future of the WWE.
The Rock, however, left the wrestling ring for the silver screen of Hollywood.
At this point, Orton doesn't see a similar move in his future. He loves the wrestling business too much.
"I always get asked, where do I see myself going. Do I see myself doing that?" Orton says. "I'd love to say yes, but right now I'm being loyal to the Vince [McMahon, head of the WWE] and to the company that's food on my table and clothes on my back for all my life. I don't see how being on a movie set and doing the same scene 50 times can compare to being in the ring. Body and health permitting, I'm gonna be in the ring as long as I can."
"He has incredible potential," says Dave Meltzer, the editor of the Wrestling Observer newsletter, www.wrestlingobserver.com. "I'm sure they want him to be the next Rock, which puts incredible pressure on him because there's only been three of those in the last 30 years. He's been given a great opportunity, but what goes with it is that the expectations are incredibly high."
He continued to get ahead of the curve by getting aligned with Triple H and Ric Flair, two of the most celebrated champions in wrestling.
It was their tutelage behind the curtain and away from the TV cameras, Orton says, that helped move his career along at such a quick pace.
"I learned more from those two than I have from anybody, my father included," Orton says. "And that's a heavy thing to say."
With history definitely on his side, Orton's next goal is to engrave his name in the history books alongside those of his family members and his mentors.
"Twenty years from now, just like Ric Flair's kids now, I want my kids to be able to say, 'My dad's Randy Orton,'" Orton says. "I want people to put me in a long list of guys that made our business memorable, guys like Triple H and guys like Ric Flair. If I can be in that top list that would be my main goal."
credit:
http://www.fresnobee.com/lifestyle/story/9840589p-10696276c.html
