Randy Orton Taking Extended Leave? + Late WrestleMania Change

Randy Orton and The Fiend opened Sunday’s WrestleMania night. In the end, The Viper scored the win. Now that Grand Stage of Them All is over, will Randy take an extended leave from the WWE?

Randy Orton Taking Extended Leave?

It was great seeing The Fiend and Randy Orton start night two of WrestleMania 37. While Bray Wyatt was originally supposed to win the match (more on that later), some changes were made to the ending.

A report from Fightful Select noted that while the ending went back-and-forth, one thing was known. Whatever the outcome, The Viper was slated to get a “good” period off TV after the WM.

No “Real” Plan

According to the Fightful report, there was not a solid plan in place for Firefly Funhouse or its future. At the end of the day, the focus was to ensure that Randy Orton was written off television for an extended time.

As Wyatt didn’t beat The Viper, Randy couldn’t now easily slip away from in-ring action for some time off. Especially since there’s a new storyline brewing between Alexa Bliss and The Fiend.

It seems as if the focus will be on these two moving forward. More on that, below.

Late WrestleMania Change

Rewinding a bit on the Randy Orton versus The Fiend, at WrestleMania 37. Originally, Wyatt was supposed to score a win. As per that Fightful Select report, Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard decided to swerve the angle, at the last minute.

Originally, the Fiend was supposed to gain the upper hand on Orton. When all was said and done, Alexa Bliss distracted her “friend”. Randy would move in with the RKO, and pin him for the win.

The report notes that as of the Friday leading into the event, Wyatt was set to beat Orton during their match. However, the change was must have been made over the weekend, at the umpteenth hour.

The “surprise” finish was pitched by Prichard and VKM. They were instrumental in the change and made the final decision.

There’s A Little Bit Of Confusion

While the ending of the match was a fascinating watch, it did feel a bit confusing. It still does after Monday Night RAW.

In fact, the report from Fightful also notes that there are superstars in the company that are also unsure of what exactly happened at the end and why. Maybe the mystery of it all will keep everyone on the edge of their seats?

As noted above, the “end game” was to ensure Orton left the match in a way so he could take an extended leave. No further information on the Bliss/Fiend storyline, or how they will move forward.

One thing is clear, Alexa purposely distracted Wyatt so that he would lose the match. This is very intriguing, to say the least.

WM 37 marked Bray Wyatt’s first match back, since taking some extended time off of his own. The Fiend previously met Randy Orton on December 20, 2020, when they had a Firefly Inferno match at the TLC pay-per-view.

Wyatt lost his TLC match, too. Here’s hoping this won’t be a trend in The Fiend’s future, moving forward.