Randy Orton Return Confirmed For WWE Survivor Series

Written by Alex Hunt • Published 21st November 2023
Randy Orton Return Confirmed For WWE Survivor Series

Randy Orton will make his return to WWE at Survivor Series.

As seen on the November 20th edition of Raw, Orton was announced as the final member of Cody Rhodes’ team in the upcoming WarGames match.

The storyline revolving around the Men’s WarGames match ran throughout the show, which opened with Drew McIntyre addressing his actions from the previous week. Looking to get revenge on Jey Uso, McIntyre explained that he couldn’t miss an opportunity to be locked in a cage with the former Bloodline member and joined Team Judgment Day for the upcoming match.

With Team Rhodes outnumbered, General Manager Adam Pearce declared that they needed to find a 5th man to join their team by the end of the night and for one member of each team to fight in the main event to determine the WarGames advantage.

Backstage segments confirmed that McIntyre and Uso would fight it out later in the night to determine which team got the advantage, with it also being mentioned backstage that Rhodes could call on stars from SmackDown.

The main event would see McIntyre defeat Uso to win the WarGames advantage, leading to The Judgment Day jumping Uso after the bell. As Team Rhodes ran off the heels, The American Nightmare grabbed the microphone to announce that they would be teaming with The Apex Predator to rapturous applause from the Grand Rapids crowd as they realised who the 5th man would be. While Randy Orton’s name was never explicitly mentioned and was never seen, YouTube videos and social media graphics later confirmed that The Viper would strike in Chicago.

It is being heavily speculated that the decision to announce Orton ahead of time as opposed to a mystery partner angle being used is to prevent a portion of WWE fans from believing that the mystery partner could be Chicago native CM Punk. Rumours of Randy Orton’s WWE return first came about when The Viper was spotted at the Performance Center earlier this year.

Randy Orton Announced As Jey Uso Looks Concerned

Although the majority of people in the arena were ecstatic about Orton making his long-awaited return in WarGames, Jey Uso was not as happy as the rest of his team. Back in May 2022, The Usos defeated Orton to become the Undisputed Tag Team Champions. A beatdown was carried out after the match that wrote Orton off in storyline as he was dealing with a back injury that would keep him out of action for 18 months.

Acknowledging what Randy Orton has done for his own WWE career, John Cena has sent a thankful message to The Apex Predator.