Insight into what Orton was battling during his time off.
From May 2022 until November 2023, Randy Orton was away from WWE as he underwent spinal fusion surgery.
That in-between time for Orton was delved into during his chat with Stephanie McMahon for her 'What's Your Story?' podcast. Orton shared that before stepping away for the surgery, he had been dealing with panic attacks, and that came to a head after the operation.
He stated that he got on anti-anxiety medication and an antidepressant. He's been off medication for six months, and it's been the same time frame since he's had a panic attack. Orton began getting emotional while speaking about having to hide what he was going through from his children.
“I didn’t see us talking about this stuff but I started kind of like getting in my head and this is after I met Kim (Orton) and I have three stepsons and I have two daughters and I kind of got overwhelmed and I started getting… I don’t know. I don’t even really wanna get into this but I don’t even give a f*ck. Like, what the hell? Like, we all are human. I was having panic attacks and it was like, it started to become hard to fly, started to become hard to stay in another bed and I would be up all night and it was really rough, and I think it kind of came to a head when I had my spinal fusion and I was out for like a year and a half and it was like, here’s my identity. This is who I am. This is the one thing I know that I’m good at and I get respect for and I can’t do it anymore and for like six months, I was under the impression that that was it, until I met this amazing doctor, Dr. (Adam) Kanter, Newport Beach, California and he was able to perform the surgery on me so that I would be able to be an athlete again and not cut through any muscle. Once you cut through any muscle and that muscle’s stitched together, there’ll be fatty infiltration into the tissue to where that muscle doesn’t operate the same that it used to. It can get you by but you’re not gonna be a pro wrestler or pro athlete. During that time, that six months where I thought that that was it… When I was younger, I felt so mentally strong and mentally tough and nothing could shake me, and I got to a dark place and I started to revert back to some of my old habits and I’ve got a wife and five kids and luckily, I was able to kind of nip it in the bud quick. She saw it happening and I was put on some SSRIs. It’s like a anti-depression, anti-anxiety medication, and I’ve actually been off of them for about six months and I feel like I’m myself again but I needed them for a few years… I can’t believe I’m talking about this. I didn’t know if I could do this job anymore even after I came back. My head was just going… It was playing out all the scenarios, worst-case. It was trying to go to bed at night and then not being able to lay down in bed because my mind would start going then all of a sudden, I’d get hot and I’d have to get out of bed and then I’d be like -- everyone’s sleeping in the house and then I’m out walking around our yard, just taking deep breaths, and I met an amazing doctor and she gave me pages and pages of information on how to deal with panic attacks and stuff, and I don’t know that the medication ever worked, but it made me feel not myself. So I didn’t like the medication, but I kept taking it because I thought that, well, I need to take this because if I don’t, I’m gonna have panic attacks. I was having ‘em anyway, and honestly, it’s been, gosh, what is it? June. It’s like coming on six months since I’ve had a panic attack. But this is like sh*t people deal with and don’t talk about and maybe so and so is like, ‘It’s good to talk about’ or something but, you know, I don’t know what this is gonna do for the Randy Orton character on TV (he laughed).
It felt like I was alone in it. I had my wife, but I didn’t talk to really anybody about it. Whatever therapist I was talking to and she helped, but not that much, and then Kim would help the most and then I started to get back on the road after my fusion. I’d been back like a year and a half or so now, maybe a little more. So I was still having the issues. I told some of our medical, but I kept it real, ‘Ah, you know, this happens to me sometimes. It’s not a big deal. I got it. Just so you know, I’m taking this. I’m taking Lexapro and I’m taking Busiprone and this is why I’m taking it and you know, is it weird that I’m taking it?’ And then I was reassured that -- if you ChatGPT it, it’ll say a certain percentage of Americans are on SSRIs and that’s about the same when it comes to the people that our doctors work with, that I work with so I didn’t feel alone because I knew that there -- even though I didn’t know who they were -- I knew that there was other people back there doing what I’m doing, kind of going through the same thing. Little steps, right? That made me feel better. But, when I finally got off the medication, it was funny because it’s like, oh, I’m off the anti-anxiety medication and I’m not having panic attacks anymore. It’s like a weight off your… There was times where I’d be with my kids or my youngest, and I’m going through kind of like an episode or something, and I’m hiding it, you know? (Orton began to get emotional.) Because I’m dad (I didn’t want her to see me like that). Like, my dad is like the toughest guy I’ve ever known and now that I’m older and I understand things better. I never saw him cry. Never saw him sell a thing. Toughest guy, toughest guy, and guys that worked with him back in the day, they just reconfirmed that notion that, ‘Your dad’s a tough son of a b*tch. He could handle himself’ and that always made me feel but then, what’s the deal with me? All kinds of mental gymnastics to kind of get to where I am now and I really feel like I am in a good place. It’s kind of therapy to talk about it now, knowing people will hear this is kind of what’s hitting me now. But I wouldn’t have talked about it while it was happening. Just like I was hiding it from my kids and then, my boys are older.”
Orton took another break from television when he was written off in November 2024 after being attacked by Kevin Owens. Orton shared that he just got over 300 pounds during that time off. He returned to the company in March at Elimination Chamber.
“I went from like, kind of 240 to 250-ish. I mean, I did take it to the extreme over the winter. I had some time off and I was a little over 300 pounds. So it’s like, oh, this guy gets a spinal fusion and he gains 80 pounds. Smart. I was off and once I kind of got the word that, ‘You’re gonna be off for a while,’ I was like, ‘Okay…’”
Orton made it to the finals of the King of the Ring tournament and fell in defeat to Cody Rhodes. To read about Orton's post-match reaction, head over to this link.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
