Why Did Randy Orton Relinquish His Chance to Headline WrestleMania Despite Winning Royal Rumble 2017?

Randy Orton has won the Royal Rumble match twice in his WWE career. His first Rumble victory came in 2009, and his second was in 2017. Surprisingly, despite winning the men’s Royal Rumble elimination match in 2017, he didn’t headline WrestleMania.

He voluntarily let go of the opportunity to wrestle in a Mania main event match. It was shocking to see him make such a decision, as any wrestler would love to win the opportunity that he had. Then why did Orton choose to give it up? Let’s dive deep and find out.

Randy Orton gave up his chance to headline WrestleMania to prove his loyalty to Bray Wyatt

In November 2016, ‘The Viper’ turned heel to join The Wyatt Family and served under Bray Wyatt (who died due to a heart attack in August 2023) for months. When he won the Royal Rumble in 2017 and earned a chance to challenge the WWE Champion, he relinquished the title shot. It was because Wyatt was the WWE Champion at that time.

Being a servant of ‘The Eater of Worlds’ at the time, he refused to challenge his master. During the February 14 episode of SmackDown Live, he forfeited his shot at the title, demonstrating his commitment to the late star and creating uncertainty around the main event of WrestleMania 33. Despite this, he still became the WWE Champion at Mania in the same year.

Orton had joined Wyatt only to turn his back on him later

Orton served under Wyatt for a while, only to deceive him later. It was his ploy against ‘ ‘The Eater of Worlds” to make him lower his walls so he could strike him during his weakest point, and that is what he did. On the February 28 episode of SmackDown Live, he turned on the deceased wrestler, reigniting their old rivalry from 2016. 

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‘The Apex Predator’ had already lost his title shot, but he found another way to challenge WWE Champion Wyatt. He earned a WWE Championship title match by defeating AJ Styles on the March 7 edition of SmackDown Live. And so, at WrestleMania 33, he defeated ‘The Man of 1,000 Truths’ to win the WWE Championship, becoming a 13-time World Champion.

He, however, didn’t get to headline Mania that year but still ended up as the WWE Champion. What are your thoughts on Orton relinquishing his chance to headline WrestleMania? Do you think it was the right decision? Let us know in the comments below. We would love to hear from you.

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