WWE News: Multiple time World Champion makes RAW in-ring return after nearly 4 years

What's the story?

The Apex Predator Randy Orton finally made his in-ring return on RAW this week as part of the battle royal match to crown the new number one contender for the Universal Championship.

However, a rather interesting aspect of this return is that this was the first time Orton has competed on RAW since October 2015. Another interesting stat is that, on July 2004 (15 years ago), Orton was part of a Battle Royal on RAW.

This is @RandyOrton's 1st match on #RAW since October of 2015In July of '04 (exactly 15 years ago), Orton won a 20-man Battle Royal on @WWE #RAW to become #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Title. Tonight, he enters another battle royal, trying to be top contender yet again https://t.co/Cv95mMtBTX

— WWE Stats & Info (@WWEStats) July 16, 2019

In case you didn't know...

Randy Orton is a SmackDown Superstar and was last seen at the Super ShowDown event in Jeddah earlier this year. While there were reports of Orton suffering an injured neck, it looks like the Legend Killer will not be taking any more time to heal.

Orton is a multi-time World Champion and will likely be feuding with Kofi Kingston on SmackDown. It remains to be seen what direction WWE will take with him given that major changes are being made to WWE as of now with Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff taking charge of RAW and SmackDown respectively.

The heart of the matter

Randy Orton has been a staple in WWE ever since he made his debut in 2002. Unlike most of his contemporaries like John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Batista, The master of the RKO is still a full-time member of the WWE roster. Which makes it even more surprising that he hadn't wrestled on RAW for over 3 years.

Here is what @WWEStats had Tweeted before his match on RAW:

This is @RandyOrton's 1st match on #RAW since October of 2015

In July of '04 (exactly 15 years ago), Orton won a 20-man Battle Royal on @WWE #RAW to become #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Title. Tonight, he enters another battle royal, trying to be top contender yet again

What's next?

With Randy Orton entering a program with the WWE Champion, it will be interesting to see if he manages to win another WWE Championship in his career this year.