"Not a rumor" - WWE was going to let controversial star break Randy Orton's massive record
A former WWE Superstar has confirmed that a controversial name was supposed to break Randy Orton's massive record.
Randy Orton became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history at SummerSlam 2004. That night, he defeated Chris Benoit to earn the accolade.
A year later, WWE decided to hand over the honor of being the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history to the controversial Muhammad Hassan. He was supposed to beat Batista for the coveted belt at SummerSlam 2005. Unfortunately, Hassan's main roster stint ended a mere few weeks before SummerSlam. Ex-WWE star Ariya Daivari recently confirmed in a tweet that WWE was going to give the strap to Hassan at SummerSlam.
Randy Orton's record is still intact
It has been 19 long years since Orton became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history. All these years later, the WWE legend's record is still intact, and no one has managed to break the same.
Here's what Muhammad Hassan had to say about WWE's plans for him, in a Q&A session on Sportskeeda Wrestling:
"That's what I heard; I knew that was from what I found out after. That was the plan, and I'm pretty sure I am 15 days younger than Randy Orton. If I remember correctly, Randy was born on April 1st, and I'm April 16th. I know I heard that it was after the fact, there wasn't any sort of plan laid out in front of me, but it did make sense when I heard it beating Batista in DC, which ironically we both lived in at the time. I lived in DC at the time, with Dave, not with him, but we both lived in DC. He is from there. That was never something that was put in front of me, but I had heard it after the fact, and obviously, it would have been a great honor, but things don't always work out the way they are planned."
By SummerSlam 2005, Orton had become a legitimate main event star. At the mega event, Orton defeated The Undertaker in a singles match. That same night, Batista defeated JBL in a No Holds Barred Match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Batista held the belt for a few more months, before vacating it due to an injury.
Would you have liked to see Hassan breaking Randy Orton's record at SummerSlam 2005? Sound off in the comments section below.