Since Randy Orton‘s debut in WWE, few if any WWE superstars have made the impact that he has. The son of WWE Hall of Famer “Cowboy” Bob Orton has been one of the most exciting talents in WWE since his debut in 2002, main eventing Wrestlemanias and winning world championships as often as everybody.
He has been one of the most consistent wrestler over the past two decades in WWE, and is still just as good as ever. He elevates everyone he works with, being key components of multiple teams and factions, like Evolution, Rated RKO, Legacy and RK-Bro just to name a few.
Here we will look at Randy Orton’s first match and see just how his legendary career in WWE began.
Randy Orton debut
Randy Orton’s debut match in WWE was against Tommy Dreamer on March 16, 2002. The match took place at the Wrestlemania X8 Fan Access Event, with diehard WWE fans getting a first glimpse at the future 14 time world champion. Randy Orton was one of the newest and most hyped young stars in years. He was a third-generation superstar, with his father and grandfather also being wrestlers.
He was only 22 at the time of his debut, and he faced ECW Legend Tommy Dreamer in his first match for WWE. Randy Orton was defeated by Tommy Dreamer in his debut match, with the former ECW Champion picking up the victory with his Dreamer Driver move.
Randy Orton would make his TV debut just a month later, however. Randy Orton’s first match on WWE TV was against Hardcore Holly on WWE Smackdown, on April 25 2002. He wore longer trunks than he usually does, in dark blue plastic colour that did not suit the future WWE Champion.
In his debut match, Randy Orton defeated Hardcore Holly. Despite Holly dominating the 22 year old star, Randy Orton picked up a surprise victory on his debut with a surprise roll-up to pin the former World Tag Team Champion. It started Orton off on a career that would span 20 years and see him win 14 world championships, the joint third most in WWE history.
He is one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time, and even 20 years into his career he is still one of the most popular performers in the world. At only 42 years of age, there are still many more great Randy Orton matches yet to come, and even more World Championship reigns in his future.
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