Kurt Angle Claims Randy Orton Was Worried He May Never Return To WWE Again

Tonight, “The Viper” returns to the squared circle.

For a while, Randy Orton didn’t think it was ever going to happen.

Kurt Angle spoke on the latest installment of his official podcast, “The Kurt Angle Show,” how he kept in touch with Orton during his latest WWE hiatus due to injury.

According to the Olympic gold medalist and WWE / IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame legend, Orton was concerned that due to his back issues he may never be able to step into the ring again.

“It’s about time,” Angle said of Orton’s announced WWE return. “I’m just glad he did [return] because I was communicating with him for quite some time when he was out with the injury because Kim [Orton] and Giovanna [Angle] are best friends. He was telling me, ‘Hey, man, it’s not looking good. I don’t know how my back is going to heal if my back’s going to heal.’”

Angle continued, “So he was a little worried about it for a while and eventually it started to heal up and now I think he’s okay, but it was pretty serious for some time. They didn’t know [if Orton would return]. Randy, he’s young, too. I mean he’s in his 40s, but he’s still pretty young. [Compared to] me and other guys that are wrestling like Sting in his 60s and Chris Jericho in his 50s. So yeah, he’s still young. He still has a good six or seven years if he stays healthy.”

Randy Orton joins Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso and Sami Zayn to take on The Judgment Day and Drew McIntyre in the Men’s WarGames match at tonight’s WWE Survivor Series 2023 premium live event from AllState Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.

Check out the complete episode of “The Kurt Angle Show” podcast where Angle talks more about this at Spotify.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.

Make sure to join us here tonight for live WWE Survivor Series 2023 results coverage.