Randy Orton is opening up about utilizing the legacy of Eddie Guerrero in storyline immediately after Eddie’s tragic passing.
When Eddie Guerrero passed away in November of 2005, one of the ways Randy Orton was booked to get heat as a villain was by verbally tarnishing the legacy of Eddie Guerrero and even utilizing his signature lowrider to crash the Undertaker into the stage, setting the lowrider on fire.
Later, when Randy Orton worked a program of Rey Mysterio, he would tell Rey Mysterio that Eddie Guerrero is in hell and this was all built to an occurrence for Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio would challenge Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 22 for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Speaking about that moment with Kurt Angle on a special episode of his podcast, Randy Orton admitted that he was completely uncomfortable utilizing Eddie Guerrero’s legacy in such a manner even though Vickie Guerrero had given her blessing.
"[I] 100% was not comfortable with it. Rey [Mysterio] assured me that it's something Eddie would have wanted, and even still, Rey and myself went to Vickie, and Vickie gave us her blessing. She said the same thing, 'Eddie would have wanted to help you guys in this manner.' If he could have used his death in some way to help the business, as morbid as that sounds, he would have wanted us to do it.”
He continued, "Although it was a horrible tragedy and we all lost our friend, it was kind of something that helped me along the way in my career, and a lot of people, you know, as a bad guy talking about that. That was heat, and it worked. It helped with the angle between Rey and me. But looking back, it will always be something that was a little -- there are a lot of things that I've done in my career that have made me uncomfortable. I think we can all agree on that, but that, in particular, was something that I'd put at the top of the list.”
Randy Orton never worked with Eddie Guerrero in a singles program. The two were on the same brand during Eddie's final months in 2005.
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