Randy Orton Comments On His Heat With The Rock And WWE Mgmt Believing He Publicly Criticized Triple H

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton participated in an interview with Phoenix, Arizona based rock station 98KUPD promoting this week's SmackDown tapings:

Orton shared a story of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson trying to get him in trouble prior to WrestleMania. Orton said he gave his opinion on The Rock during an interview with ESPN—that he wasn't buying his return speech about returning to WWE and never leaving again. Orton said Johnson called management and claimed the WWE Superstar slammed him and Triple H in the interview. Orton feels Rock mentioned Triple H to grab their attention even though he didn't criticize "The Game" in the interview. Orton said he had "got in trouble" and "made Vince mad" for his statements. He feels the interview was "blown out of proportion" and that Johnson should have confronted him over his remarks, rather than complaining to Vince McMahon and management.

Orton referenced Hunter's possible ring-rust in the ESPN interview. You can read the remarks and the remarks about The Rock by clicking on the link.



As a fan, outside of your match, which match are you most looking forward to watching?

Orton: I hate to say the obvious, but I think Triple H versus The Undertaker is going to be very interesting. The only thing that they don't have going for them is the amount of time both guys have been outside of the ring the last year. Triple H wrestled Sheamus at Wrestlemania 26, then either the night after or a couple of weeks later, Sheamus put him on the shelf. Triple H ended up tearing his bicep, having some neck problems and filming a couple of movies. He was out of the picture, but that's good for a guy who has been in the business 20 years. He has three baby girls and he's married to Stephanie McMahon, so he's a family man, too, and that's important. But as far as headlining the biggest show of them all, he has to have a little ring rust on him. Of course, he is "The Game," he is Triple H and he's one of the best, if not the best, in my opinion when it comes to this generation, but that ring rust will do you in. Your timing is very important when it comes to hitting the ropes and how many steps you need to take in order to execute this move or that move. I don't know if he's in the ring hitting the ropes and getting his stamina up, but that could be a factor in this match. I guess we won't know until it's all said and done if these guys have been training, and who knows what The Undertaker has been doing. But if there's anyone who has been around and knows what they're doing, nobody knows better than The Undertaker. And I think no matter what happens, this is going to be one of the most anticipated matches on the pay-per-view.

The Rock recently came back to WWE. What do you think of his return so far, and what can we expect to happen when he's actually live on Raw this Monday and he's finally inside the same ring as John Cena and The Miz?

Orton: That's an interesting topic. I know them both and I know Cena a lot better than I know The Rock, obviously, but I've been in the ring with both cutting promos and wrestling. I have to say, though, talking about the whole ring rust thing, John Cena has had about 2,000 matches in the last seven years. The Rock? A big, fat zero. So when it comes to ring rust, I don't care what type of athlete you are, and The Rock is obviously an athletic dude, but Cena has been in the ring. He's been at every show and in every show and making appearances and he has been on the road with the WWE over 300 days a year for the last seven years. The Rock? Virtually nonexistent. You see the interviews that The Rock does and he says that he doesn't want to be known as a wrestler. He doesn't want to be known as a sports entertainer or a performer with WWE or a WWE superstar. He wants to be known as an actor. Now all of a sudden he's back in our world telling the fans what they want to hear. He's telling them, "I promise that I will never go away again. I promise that I'm back for good and that I'm here to stay." He said that, what, six or seven weeks ago? Have we even seen him live since then? No. Via satellite. I think Cena will own The Rock. I think Cena is wittier and can go off the cuff. Cena writes his own stuff, while The Rock has stuff written for him. It just all comes down to who you are in the ring and what kind of performer you are in the ring, and I think Cena is 10 times the performer in the ring that The Rock is. This Monday in Chicago, he'll prove it.