Randy Orton Reflects On "Rough" Feud With The Fiend In WWE

Randy Orton recently made an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Podcast to discuss his career, longevity, and what the future holds for him in the business.

The 14-time WWE World Champion explained that more recently he's not taking things as seriously when there's something he doesn't quite agree with behind the scenes. Instead, he accepts that he's out of control of a lot of situations, creatively. He takes what he's given to him, and does his best with it.

"I think rolling with the punches is something that I realized," Orton explained. "More recently than not, if I just accept that I'm out of control of some of these situations, and I'm talking about the business right now if I just take what they give me and do it to the best of my ability. I was doing Fiend stuff, man, a year ago. That was hard."

That particular topic was in regards to Randy Orton's feud with The Fiend between 2020 and 2021. Orton described some that work as "rough" for him.

"Some of that was rough," Orton said. "They put me in the burn mask one week and then the next week I'm out of it and, I think, my skin healed. It's tough. Then you go to who you would imagine you go to when you have a gripe, and go, 'Hey, I can't do this, like man, aren't they gonna' 'Just do it, it's going to work.' [Vince McMahon responded] 'Okay.' Like, roll with the punches. You know, you go out there and do your best job, even though I'm lighting a dead guy on fire and he's the babyface.

"I had a very hard time trying to make that real, but I feel like I did a good enough job, where even though it was a little cringe-worthy for some people because I really really just tried to just believe that I was going through this, I think it helped people buy into it a little bit more, while we were suspending that reality and trying to make them believe, you know, like when they would if they were watching the most recent Halloween movie.  They want to believe when they're in there, they want to be entertained. So, I think, the more that I can accept that, and make that real, and make that something that I'm feeling and not just words that some 22-year-old writer wrote on paper for me. But if I believe it and make it mine, I can get them to believe, you know."

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