Randy Orton On Who Deserves Credit For WrestleMania 31 RKO Spot With Seth Rollins

The phrase "WrestleMania moment" gets thrown around a lot but Randy Orton and Seth Rollins undoubtedly created one nearly a decade ago. During their match at WrestleMania 31, Orton countered Rollins' signature Stomp into an RKO outta nowhere to hand "The Architect" the loss. The finishing sequence is widely regarded as one of the most creative spots in WWE history.

So, who exactly deserves credit for the spot? During his recent appearance on the "Impaulsive" podcast, Orton praised the uber-athletic Rollins for creating enough hangtime so he could execute a picture-perfect RKO. 

"When it comes to the timing, I'll take the credit on that. But when it comes to getting there, I gotta give all that credit to Seth," Orton said. "I gave him a base to jump off of, but he had to run towards me, redirect, go straight off the back, and give himself enough hangtime for me to go from being bent way the f**k over to getting out from underneath, seeing him and then dropping him." 

Orton explained why a little less hangtime from Rollins could have ruined the finish. "If he had been just a little off, the whole move would have not went down, or it wouldn't have been pretty. It would have been on me, I would have taken the criticism on that."

Besides that specific finish, Orton has executed many creative RKOs throughout his career, for which he once again credits his opponents. Considering that many of those RKOs went viral, Orton is often approached in public places by fans wishing to get dropped by "The Apex Predator" and he respectfully never obliges. "Recently, I was taking pictures and signing autographs for high school kids, and every five minutes one of them would go, 'Hey man, RKO me.' They wanna get it [recorded] on [their phones]."