WWE superstar and former 14-time world champion Randy Orton recently spoke with BT Sport to hype up this evening’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view and discuss all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on the younger talents having a lack of respect for old-time veterans. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Feels like younger talents don’t show the same respect towards old-timers:
“I would never name any names, but you see the general attitude coming out of NXT is ‘Alright, I’m here. Where’s my stuff? Where’s my music? I’m gonna go do my thing.’ You have to respect everybody that came before you. You have to respect everybody that you’re in there with. If I’m out in the ring with you, I have to be able to know that you’re gonna put my body first and you’re going to protect me in everything that you’re doing and you have to know that about me. With that comes respect. I just feel like sometimes now, that level of respect has dwindled. If anything, that’s what’s upsetting to me as an old-timer.”
How guys take for granted how much damage they’re inflicting on each other:
“They don’t understand that when you’re so big, you don’t have to take any bumps because you’re the giant. You got that guy in the ring opposite you, bumping all over the place and wearing his body down to make you look like a giant. You owe him a steak dinner. You need to thank him every chance you get. If he needs a bag of ice after the match because he took all these big moves because you’re a big son of a bitch and he was trying to make you look like a killer.Then you go get that ice for him. See if he’s ok. Check on him. I feel like guys take for granted how much we’re beating each other up.”
How much wrestling is a team player mentality:
“When you can tell guys don’t get that. Or it’s not as much of a team player mentality, but it’s more me, me, me, me, me. There’s a time and a place for that. But when it’s all the time, then that’s not a good look. When I can’t trust you to respect me enough to be thinking about my body and my health rather than you knocking my head off on live TV and making it look like you killed me. Then we got a problem.”
(H/T and transcribed by Sescoops)