Latest News On Randy Orton’s Return To WWE TV, Original Plans, WrestleMania Speculation, More

– There’s a lot of people who are assuming that Randy Orton — who has been off of WWE television for several months now — will be back before WrestleMania next month. There’s been a lot of speculation that Orton will return either at the Fast Lane pay-per-view this Sunday, or the following night’s RAW. Well, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has reported that WWE may hold off Orton’s return until after WrestleMania, as WWE is considering having Seth Rollins — who was originally scheduled to take on Orton at WrestleMania– face off with Dolph Ziggler.

“They’ve pulled [Randy Orton] from all TV’s. So, I don’t know what the story is. He was supposed to start at TV a couple of weeks ago — he’s ready, he’s worked all of the house shows. But for whatever reason, they’ve decided to hold off his return, and I’m thinking that since he’s not going to work [at Fast Lane] they figure there’s no point in bringing him back now, and maybe they’re going to bring him back after WrestleMania, or they’ll have him do a run-in at WrestleMania.

The original plan was for Orton to be on TV weeks ago, and then he was pulled and he’s not advertised on any TV’s at all up through WrestleMania. So, maybe they’ll setup a big surprise return on TV after Fast Lane, or even at Fast Lane.”

Meltzer also noted that Orton was originally supposed to return on the post-Royal Rumble RAW that was snowed out. Orton himself has told fans at appearances that expects to be back on WWE TV at some point in the near future, and it’s extremely unlikely that he’ll want to miss WrestleMania.