WWE News: Randy Orton Update

This past Sunday’s Survivor Series event was held in Randy Orton’s hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. Orton, who was in St. Louis on Sunday, was expected to return to WWE during the main event. However, WWE ultimately decided to have Sting make his WWE debut during the main event instead of having Randy Orton return.

Orton isn’t scheduled to appear on any WWE live events until the December 26 house show at Madison Square Garden.

It also appears that filming for The Condemned 2 is still underway, and that Orton will not be appearing on next Monday’s RAW, which takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It’s been rumored that Orton would return at some point before WWE’s TLC pay-per-view on December 14 in Cleveland, Ohio. However, with it being unlikely that Orton will appear on next Monday’s RAW, WWE wouldn’t have much time to build up a Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins match, and it appears that John Cena will be the one to take on Rollins at the TLC pay-per-view.

There is rumblings that WWE could hold off Orton’s return until the Royal Rumble event in January, which makes sense for a number of reasons.

WWE has announced that the Royal Rumble match will have 40 participants like it did in 2011. That creates room for plenty of surprise returns in the match, one of which is likely to be Orton, who would make his surprise return, confront Seth Rollins and begin building towards a match with Rollins at WrestleMania 31.

WWE’s original plan was to have Randy Orton make his return at Survivor Series; however, they felt that they didn’t need both Orton and Sting on the show, and decided to just have Sting get involved in the main event.

It’s expected that when Orton returns, he’ll be a babyface. However, it’s unclear as to how long Orton will remain a babyface as Orton strongly prefers to be a heel.

Roman Reigns said in a recent interview that he’d love to have another match with Randy Orton once he returns. So, that could be the direction WWE goes in after WrestleMania 31.

As of right now, the only Orton appearance that’s been announced is the December 26 house show. Orton is also scheduled to work all of the house shows after December 26, but an official date for Randy Orton’s return to television has not yet been advertised.

Orton could return to WWE television as early as the TLC pay-per-view on December 14, or as late as the Royal Rumble pay-per-view on January on January 25.

[Photo via Frazer Harrison / Getty Images]