Randy Orton opened up about the back injury that kept him sidelined for over a year-and-a-half during his recent appearance on Impaulsive, the podcast hosted by WWE United States Champion Logan Paul.

The wear and tear of a 20-year career in WWE caught up to Orton in 2022, putting him out of action and on an operating table for double fusion back surgery. How Orton wrestled as long as he did is astonishing, considering the pain he was in his daily life. Said Orton:

“I mean, I couldn’t stand for more than a couple minutes without having pain shoot down my legs. When I would sit, I had a disc that was slipping every time I would bend. So, you know, on a plane, sitting here, my feet would go numb, and I’d have pain shooting down my legs.”

When it came to getting in the ring, Orton credited his RK-Bro tag team partner, Matt Riddle, for doing much of the team’s heavy lifting, saying:

“That last year before I had to leave because of the back, I was in a tag team with former WWE Superstar Matt Riddle, and I got to give him props because that year we tagged together, I was not able to be in that ring unless I was in there with someone like him because he was able to take the brunt of the physicality. He’d tag me at the end, I’d come in, I’d do my shit, and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have made it that far.”

At 43, Orton is focused on wrestling as long as he can. He considers himself blessed and acknowledged his doctors for ensuring his recovery. While Orton is looking to rack up as many accomplishments as he can before he retires, he also enjoys giving back to the business by mentoring wrestling’s new generation.

In addition, Orton spoke about the period in his career when his attitude toward others was less than professional. While working with A&E on a documentary, Orton saw some of the footage of his behavior, which took him by surprise, saying:

“I’ve seen some of this footage from 10, 15 years ago, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ Like, that’s horrible. But that’s just kind of who I was.”