Joe Hendry Addresses Being ‘Hand-Selected’ For Randy Orton WWE WrestleMania 41 Match

WWE

TNA Wrestling World Champion Joe Hendry has addressed being “hand-selected” as Randy Orton’s opponent at WWE WrestleMania 41.

After Kevin Owens was forced to pull out of his announced WrestleMania 41 match with Randy Orton just three weeks prior to the event, The Viper was then advertised to be taking on a mystery opponent that wouldn’t be revealed until the match took place on April 20.

While speculation was rampant regarding new WWE signings such as Rusev or Aleister Black answering the call, it was instead Joe Hendry who showed up in Las Vegas – receiving a rapturous response from the fans inside Allegiant Stadium.

His WrestleMania debut marks yet another milestone achievement for Hendry thus far in 2025, a year that has also seen him become TNA World Champion as well as compete in the 2025 men’s Royal Rumble match.

Speaking to John Powell of SLAM Wrestling, Hendry discussed his year so far, including being chosen to face Orton at WrestleMania 41:

“You do not get selected to wrestle Roman Reigns if you’re not the top level. You do not get hand-selected to wrestle Randy Orton at his 20th WrestleMania unless you know what you’re doing.

“Joe Hendry does not need to pivot. This is full-steam ahead! We’re going to do phenomenal business for TNA Wrestling. That’s all we’ve got to worry about. No pivot required. Full-steam ahead for TNA Wrestling and Rebellion is gonna be incredible…

“Look, if John Cena tells me I did a good job then I’m going to go ahead and say that I did a good job. I’m going to use Cena’s advice as well.

“You must pay attention to the metrics and the immediate metric that we have is unless they’ve restocked while I’ve been on this call, you cannot buy a Joe Hendry T-shirt on WWE.com. That’s a metric that I pay attention to.

“I look at the the amount of video clips that are going out of that moment of me and Randy. If that wasn’t an iconic moment, WWE and TNA wouldn’t be putting it out multiple times a day.”

Following his WrestleMania 41 appearance Hendry then made his return to WWE NXT just two days later, confronting Oba Femi and Trick Williams and inserting himself into the conversation for a potential future NXT Championship shot.

Ahead of his TNA World Title defence against Frankie Kazarian and Ethan Page at TNA Rebellion on April 27, Hendry explained why he made his return to NXT – click here for full details.

Transcript via Fightful

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• WrestleMania 41
• Joe Hendry
• WrestleMania
• Randy Orton
• wwe

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