Randy Orton has been out of action since the May 20th, 2022 episode of WWE SmackDown, when he and Matt Riddle dropped the RAW tag team titles to The Usos. There has been no announcement made regarding when Orton will make his comeback, and there is still ongoing concern regarding his future in the ring.
It would appear that WWE had a plan in place for the return of Orton back when Vince McMahon was in charge of the company. It was brought to Louis Dangoor’s attention by the Twitter account @WrestleVotes that, “When Randy Orton went down, the plan was for him to come back and immediately turn on Matt Riddle.” It was also said that “maybe they don’t have anything drawn out for Riddle now because they assumed that Randy would be back by now?”
? WWE's original plan for Randy Orton's return from injury would have seen him immediately turn heel on Matt Riddle, @WrestleVotes tells @GiveMeSport. Unclear if that's still the plan with serious concern over the severity of Randy's injury.https://t.co/vnSQ6U8G0T
— Louis Dangoor (@TheLouisDangoor) November 3, 2022
