Randy Orton - biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Randal Keith "Randy" Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE wrestling on its SmackDown brand, where he is the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. Orton is a third-generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Bob Orton, Sr., father "Cowboy" Bob Orton, as well as his uncle Barry O, all competed in the professional wrestling industry. Before being promoted to the main WWE roster, Orton trained in and wrestled for Mid-Missouri Wrestling Association-Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling for a month. He was then sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where Orton held the OVW Hardcore Championship on two separate occasions. After signing with WWE, Orton became a member of the stable Evolution, which quickly led to a WWE Intercontinental Championship reign, his first title with the company. Orton also acquired the moniker "The Legend Killer" during a storyline where he began disrespecting Hall of Famers and physically attacking veterans of the industry outside of appropriate restrictions. At age 24, Orton became the youngest person ever to hold the World Heavyweight Championship. With this win, Orton departed from Evolution and a feud with his former stablemates began. In 2006, Orton joined forces with Edge in a tag team known as Rated-RKO. Together, Orton and Edge held the World Tag Team Championship. After the team disbanded, during mid-2007, Orton gained two WWE Championship reigns in one night. Orton formed the group The Legacy with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase in 2008, however, they would disband in 2010 with Orton returning to singles competition. Overall, Orton is a eight-time world champion, having won the World Heavyweight Championship twice and the WWE Championship six times. He is also the winner of the 2009 Royal Rumble match. Description above from the Wikipedia article Randy Orton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.