While speaking with Sports Illustrated, Randy Orton discussed a wide range of topics, including CM Punk’s surprise return at the WWE Survivor Series last year following the Men’s War Games Match. Here are the highlights:
On his return at Survivor Series:
“I was supposed to be a surprise in WarGames at Survivor Series,” said Orton. “All these CM Punk rumors started a month prior, and everyone thought–since we were in Chicago for Survivor Series–that CM Punk would be the surprise. So they had Cody a week before WarGames say that he had a friend–me–that was going to come. The surprise was spoiled all because Punk was rumored to be there, and WWE didn’t want people to be pissed.”
On leaning about CM Punk’s return:
“The day of Survivor Series, I’m about to get my boots on, I’m feeling the nerves, it had been a year-and-a-half. Triple H is like, ‘Hey Randy, I’ve got to talk to you for a second.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, what’s up, man?’ So he told me a couple things. And then he went, ‘One more thing–Punk’s returning tonight.’ I thought he was fucking with me. I said, ‘You’re joking,’ and he was like, ‘No, I’m not. This is something that just happened in the last few days, yada yada yada.’”
On his reaction to it:
“I was so excited for this surprise return. That’s never really been the case. They’ve always kind of stooged off the fact I was returning; they wanted those views. So I’d never had that surprise return. I could have been really pissed, and old Randy would have been pissed. It was a defining moment for me. I went out there, we had a great WarGames match, everybody was excited that I returned, everybody was excited that Punk returned, and neither return stepped on each other. It was a testament to how much I’d grown. It would have been an issue only if I made it one, so I was proud of the way I handled it.”