After almost a year and a half away from the ring, all signs point to Randy Orton making his long-awaited WWE return later this month. 

The Viper was spotted at the WWE Performance Center back in September with reports emerging in October that he’s likely to make his return to the company at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames. However, it now looks like he could be back on WWE programming even earlier than expected.

Fightful Select reports that the fifth and final member of the babyface team in the Men’s WarGames match is currently set to be announced before the Premium Live Event itself.

This follows a report from the outlet this past weekend that Orton is planned to take that spot, which is said to have been the plan since the summer, whilst Drew McIntyre is set to fill out the heel team alongside The Judgement Day – the seeds of which were sown this past Monday when McIntyre turned heel and seemingly allied himself with the faction.

That report also noted that the company had tentative plans to reveal Orton’s return the night before Survivor Series which has now been reiterated by the outlet.

The reason behind the move, as opposed to keeping the return a surprise, is said to be CM Punk-related, with the company wanting to shoot down any speculation that Punk could make his WWE return as the mystery partner.

Orton last competed on the May 20th, 2022 edition of SmackDown where he and Matt Riddle lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to then-SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos – who subsequently unified the titles into the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship.

Orton has been out of action ever since with a major back injury though it looks like it’ll only be a matter of time before we all hear voices in our heads once again.