Randy Orton: “If Evolution Hadn’t Been A Part Of My Career, I Might Not Be Where I Am Today”

Randy is thankful.

Last Tuesday WWE presented SmackDown 1000 from the ‘Capitol One Arena’ in Washington D.C. Fans in the nation’s capitol witnessed the return of Rey Mysterio, Shane McMahon and a special appearance from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Adding to those aforementioned moments on top of others during the show, Triple H, Dave Bautista, Ric Flair and Randy Orton reunited to form Evolution.

There is a combined 49 World Championships between the four men of Evolution and during their time together in the early 2000’s they reigned supreme over Monday Night RAW. WWE had cameras constantly rolling backstage at SmackDown 1000 and stars who were present at the show were interviewed and shared their thoughts on what the historic night meant to them. One individual who was interviewed was “The Viper” Randy Orton and Orton spoke about how special the Evolution reunion was and added that if it wasn’t for the guidance and advice of Flair and Triple H, he may not be where he is today.

“Walking down the aisle with those guys for the first time in gosh… fourteen years, fifteen years, it really felt cool.” Randy said. “The fans were very happy to see us together. I get a lot of people still to this day – they say, ‘Hey when I was a kid, I used to watch Evolution’ or, ‘I grew up on Evolution’ and [it] usually just makes me feel old but but tonight it made me feel a little something different. Every time I’ve heard that when I’m out and about and I hear that I realize that we really were something special. It’s a kind of thing where if Evolution hadn’t been a part of my history, my past, my career that I might not be standing here today. Having the leadership of Triple H and most certainly Ric Flair helped me mold my career into what it is now. I’m a 13-time World Champion. All that started in Evolution.” He continued, “I forgot where I was and listening to Hunter and Batista and Flair talk and putting me over the way that they did, I think I was grinning ear-to-ear like I used to back when I was 22, 23 years old starting Evolution so all-in-all it was a great day and I wasn’t prepared for how much of a great day it was really gonna be. Hopefully in another decade or so [on] the 2000th SmackDown or the 50th anniversary of RAW if we’re all still alive and kicking it then we’ll get to do it again and I’m looking forward to it. I had a blast tonight, it was fun” 

To read in detail about everything that happened at SmackDown 1000, check out Fightful’s coverage article of the show.

If you are going to use the quote above, please credit WWE with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.