Randy Orton Opens Up on Serving Time After Going AWOL From United States Marine Corps

There are consequences for every type of action. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t matter if the action taken was for self-care. This is something WWE Superstar Randy Orton learnt the hard way.

Prior to pro-wrestling, The Viper chose to pursue a different career – the Marine Corps. He didn’t want to go into pro-wrestling like his father, and neither did he want to go to college.

However, the camps and experiences didn’t turn out what he thought they would. He realized he needed to get out of there, and well, he left.

During WWE Evil Episode 5, Randy Orton opened up about why he chose to leave and what the actual consequence was.

“I definitely didn’t want to go to college. And, in my case, I chose The Marine Corp. I went through, I believe it was 12 or 13 weeks of h*ll. USM Sea Boot camp. Boot camp s*cked. The atmosphere that I was put in had a lot of negative aspects of it that I’ll never go into in public but I was seeing things that I didn’t want to deal with, things I didn’t sign up for. So, I left. I went AWOL for about 82 days. Turned myself in and I ended up serving, I think I was sentenced to 45 days to the Camp Pendleton base brig military prison.”

While it’s understandable why he left, going AWOL is often frowned upon. He had to suffer the consequences of an action which he took because he realized how negatively the camps were impacting him.

When he finally returned home, his father, Bob Orton Jr., nudged The Viper towards professional wrestling.

Read More: WWE Legend Randy Orton Reveals How He First Got Into Wrestling at 19

Bob Orton Jr. contact Bruce Prichard for Randy Orton

Once his son was home, he thought of showing him the world of pro-wrestling. Therefore, he had a conversation with Bruce Prichard about his 19-year-old son.

Prichard agreed to it almost immediately, and Orton was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling for the developmental program. Everyone was quite impressed with his work, and of course, Orton made it to the actual shows.

However, the reason Randy Orton considered his father’s idea for pro-wrestling was because he didn’t know what else to do. Maybe things would have gone differently if he had a plan and the WWE Universe would have never known The Legend Killer.

But, today, Randy Orton is a veteran in the business and holds the record for most WWE Raw matches and most WWE PPV matches, and he’s a 16-Time World Champion!

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