Details on furious backstage reaction after a Randy Orton match ran long

Former WWE Superstar Eugene has recalled how Jim Cornette reacted furiously when a Randy Orton vs. John Cena match ran long in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

Before they joined WWE’s main roster in 2002, Randy Orton and John Cena performed in the same OVW system as Eugene. Jim Cornette, the lead booker for OVW at the time, decided to book Randy Orton vs. John Cena as the main event of an OVW show.

Speaking on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Eugene said the match went over its allocated time by more than two minutes. Cornette allegedly reacted by smashing windows with a baseball bat.

"One time Cornette tried Cena against Randy in the main event. Counting down 30 seconds, 20 seconds, five, four. They went over like two minutes and 17 seconds, something like that. I remember Cena coming back doing his tape, it was a good match. Like, ‘Yeah, we did really good.’

"Corny [Jim Cornette] is, ‘God damn, two minutes and 17 seconds?’ Gets his baseball bat and starts beating the windows in the building down from us, hitting his car. Randy just left when he came back. Yeah, every now and then it [Cornette’s frustrations] came out."

Chris Jericho said he has also heard stories about Cornette letting out his frustrations by smashing car windows with a baseball bat.

Randy Orton and John Cena’s WWE history

John Cena defeated Randy Orton on WWE SmackDown in February 2017

According to wrestling stats database Cagematch.net, Randy Orton and John Cena have faced each other in 126 singles matches. That number includes WWE live events, as well as their two one-on-one matches in OVW.

Their first singles match took place at the Brian Pillman Memorial Show in August 2001, with Randy Orton defeating The Prototype (Cena’s former gimmick). The most recent one-on-one encounter between the two men came at a live event in February 2017. Cena picked up the victory to retain the WWE Championship.

Please credit Talk Is Jericho and give a H/T to SK Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.