Randy Orton Gives Update On When He Plans To Retire

In an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Podcast, WWE star Randy Orton was asked how much longer he was looking to keep wrestling. In between mentioning how he loved wrestling to the point he hoped potential acting roles wouldn't get in the way, Randy Orton revealed he would like to keep going into the ring until he reached the 50-year-old mark.

"I'm 41," Orton said. "By the time I'm 50, I think I'm done. But I'm not like, I'll do auditions every once in a while, but I almost only do them because my wife says 'oh do them, because what if you don't? Then you'll wonder what if you did.' So I do auditions here and there, crossing my fingers that I don't get a callback because I love what I do. I don't want to stop. I don't want to have to stop, because of my body.

"So I've taken it upon myself to make sure I'm doing everything I can on the daily that physically I'm able to continue. But if it was up to me, and I knew physically it wouldn't be a problem, I'd say I'd wrestle until I'm 50 years old. And I would go out and have that last match when I'm 50 and be able to say I did it on my own terms. That's 9 years from now. But I don't see an end to my career any time soon. I'd like to continue to go."

On a similar subject, Randy Orton was asked if he would ever like to have a part-time role in wrestling, similar to one Shawn Michaels and Undertaker had for years. That is one thing Orton isn't interested in, as he believes wrestling once a week, even on a reduced schedule, helps keep him in-ring shape.

"That's that sought after 'oh, WrestleMania and get the summer off, come back for SummerSlam, disappear till Survivor Series,'" Orton said. "I think Shawn Michaels was doing that, Taker was doing that for a while. I don't want to do that. I think doing that burns you out. I think wrestling once a week for me, like wrestling once a week would be ideal for me. And that's kind of where I'm at right now. Schedule-wise, I don't think anyone knows this and I don't care if they do, but I think I'm maybe one of the only guys that have an amount of dates that I'm contractually obligated to do.

"And that's 80, 80 shows a year. It sounds like a lot, but after you do one TV a week, one PPV a month, you're left with like 15, 20 live events. So those are the Saudi Arabias, the European Tours, the Madison Square Garden live events. I think that, with me wrestling once a week, I'm able to kind of keep the joints loose and feel like I'm in shape enough to continue to do it.

"If I take a bad bump and I hurt my neck, I'll take a week off, and I think that's what's going to make me be able to wrestle until I'm 50. It's that I'll take the week off. You've got a lot of guys that will wrestle through these injuries, and that's how it used to have to be. You wouldn't be paid if you weren't working. If you didn't show up to that Garden show, you weren't getting paid. The pay scale, the pay structure has changed now to where I'm getting paid no matter what. It's fantastic.

"So I'm going to go and I'm going to do whatever shows they want me to do, and I'm going to do them to the best of my ability. But there's 80 of them, and if I keep that number 80 or less, and that number goes down a few every year, I'm good. I'm good. And I don't want to have two shows a year because I think that's when you do a moonsault off the top buckle to the floor and two thirty-year veterans and you almost break your neck."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Ringer Wrestling Podcast and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription