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Randy Orton is known as The Viper in WWE, and rightly so. He has taken down big names and has gone on to win countless titles, cementing himself as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
Despite his reputation, Randy is a very friendly person off camera and is known to look out for his friends when the going gets tough. There are many videos where we can see a very emotional Orton clapping his heart out at the WWE Hall of Fame events.
AEW is a place that has a lot of former WWE names with whom Randy Orton has worked previously. In this article, we will take a look at 3 stars he is friends with and 2 names that he is not on good terms with.
Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy spent the best days of his career in WWE and is known to have quite the pull when it comes to the locker room. He is also one of Randy Orton’s good friends and has often praised The Viper for being a great wrestler.
He did the same in the latest episode of his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast when he said that he loved working with Orton.
“Big Randy Orton fan, big Randy Orton supporter. From day one, even before people grew to appreciate how great Randy was, I think he’s always been great. He’s always been great in the ring, the way he takes his time, the way he calculates every single moment, every single taunt he does … I love working with Randy," Matt Hardy said. [H/T WrestlingInc]
Chris Jericho
The name of Chris Jericho transcends wrestling as he has reinvented himself time after time. During the way, he has ticked off a lot of people, but he has maintained a good relationship with Randy Orton. It was evident when he stood up for The Viper during his feud with Brock Lesnar in 2016.
After Lesnar gave Randy a concussion, Jericho stood up to The Beast Incarnate and confronted him for what he had just done. That was confirmed by Orton himself when he revealed:
“Basically, what happened is Jericho saw what was going on in the ring and wanted answers as to whether my best interests were in mind as far as my health and safety. I had my family there, sitting front row, and Chris knew that, as well. He was just coming up to check on his boy, that’s what it boiled down to, and I think that’s awesome,” Orton said. [H/T Sports Illustrated]
Adam Copeland is best friends with Randy Orton
Adam Copeland, formerly known as Edge, had a storied history with Randy Orton. The duo were in a tag team known as Rated-RKO, and they even won the World Tag Team Championship together. They then had a very bitter feud after The Rated-R Superstar made his shocking WWE comeback in 2020.
Despite their rivalry on the screen, the two men remain very good friends, as explained by Copeland himself in 2020.
He said:
“The first time I met him, I still remember it, I really do. That meeting where Bob [Orton] introduced us, and I just remember thinking ‘Hey, he’s taller than me.’ And thinking that he’s got all the tools by just looking at him. You know, he’s a good-looking guy, all of those things, but you don’t know what they bring to the table from an in-ring aspect. The first time I saw him work, I went ‘OK, he’s special.’ And then the first time that we ever actually wrestled against each other was for the Intercontinental Title, and pretty much from the get-go, from the first time we locked up there was just something different between us.” [H/T USA Today]
Tony Khan is not friends with Randy Orton
AEW President Tony Khan is known to not hold back when it comes to Twitter. He has called out many big names, and one of them was Randy Orton. When Khan took to Twitter to poke fun at the travel debacle that WWE had in Saudi Arabia, Orton retorted with a message of his own.
He responded to Tony’s tweet and linked an article from 2018 that revealed how Tony’s father, Shahid, was being investigated for corruption.
Khan responded to Randy and wrote:
"I thought you only tagged me in your posts when you were grasping for leverage. That article's over a year old + is about baseless claims made about my dad years ago. That's the best you can do, nothing. Meanwhile in the time since that was written, you used the N word on twitch," Tony Khan shared.
Check out Tony Khan's tweet below:
Taz is not on good terms with Randy Orton
AEW commentator Taz is a loudmouth and is not afraid to say things as they are. He once called out Randy Orton after he seemingly disrespected the likes of Bully Ray and other independent wrestlers.
Taz spoke out on an episode of his podcast, The Taz Show, and said that while the rest of the wrestlers do not have the level of fame that Randy has, he cannot go out and make fun of former WWE names the way he did. Taz also said that Orton should not take shots at the indie wrestlers as they were not afforded the opportunity that he had.
What do you think about the aforementioned wrestlers' relationship with Randy Orton? Sound off in the comments section below!
