Randy Orton Makes First Comments Since WWE Heel Turn

Published: Mar 17, 2026 by Liam | Last Updated: Mar 17, 2026 by Liam

Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.

Randy Orton Makes First Comments Since WWE Heel Turn

On tonight’s WWE Raw, Randy Orton has made his first comments since he turned heel and attacked Cody Rhodes on SmackDown.

WWE announced that Orton would be interviewed live by Michael Cole tonight, but this ended up not being the case because Orton, as he put it, changed his mind.

However, he did give a comment, saying that he “finally had a conversation with someone that has a brain,” and was seemingly on a phone call with this person when the video footage of him aired.

This person helped Orton understand exactly who and what he is, and why he did what he did to Cody Rhodes.

The answer – “I’m a killer.”

Orton signed off his comments with the opening line to Cody Rhodes’ theme music:

“Wrestling has more than one royal family.”

Randy Orton Heel Turn Breaks WWE Record

WWE pointed out on Raw that the Randy Orton heel turn and attack on Cody Rhodes broke this year’s record for being the most watched video on social media.

As reported by WWE’s latest stats on Raw tonight, the video garnered 112 million views on the company’s social platforms.

The Orton heel turn saw him harken back to what fans commonly refer to as the 2009 version of Randy Orton, who was the top heel at the time and was known for his wild antics, including an attack on Stephanie McMahon at one point.

The performance of the video is a good sign for WWE with there being plenty of question marks over the decision to turn Orton heel, especially due to the belief that fans are still more likely to cheer him than Rhodes when it comes to their match.

Ultimately, business is business, and as long as they do numbers like that, it doesn’t really matter which of them gets cheered, even if it’s not the desired outcome.