Randy Orton's real-life heat with former WWE champion was turned into a storyline
Randy Orton has been one of the mainstays in WWE for many years now. The Viper has become the backbone of the company, easily fitting into whichever role he is allotted. However, he has been the subject of a few controversies. For example, former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. revealed how Orton's real-life heat with Kofi Kingston turned into a storyline.
Kofi Kingston was primed for a big push after his feud with Orton in 2009. However, after a botched spot during their match, Vince McMahon called off Kingston's push because the mistake upset Orton.
On a recent episode of Wrestling With Freddie, the former WWE Writer revealed that McMahon was very high on Kofi Kingston. He described how he had written out major plans for the popular babyface, but they had to be scrapped. Prinze Jr. also noted that the company used the real-life animosity between Orton and Kingston in a storyline years later:
''They tell me about this blown spot and Randy’s p*ssed at it," said Prinze Jr. "It got shut down. And they ended up, for those who aren’t in the know, they ended up using that real moment of why Randy sort of held Kofi down in the actual story of Kofi winning the title after winning the Gauntlet match that I saw ten years later off of Randy Orton. They literally put that into the story." (H/T: 411MANIA)
My how far we have come 10 years later. Nothing like a good dose of history, right? #smackdownlive this Tuesday should be...fun.... twitter.com/TheGarden/stat…
How WWE incorporated Randy Orton's incident with Kofi Kingston into a story
Despite Kingston's rise to stardom in 2009 got derailed, the company finally pulled the trigger on Kingston's push on the road to WrestleMania 35. WWE subsequently used the angle where Randy Orton called Kingston "stupid" after the botch in 2009 as part of a storyline in 2019.
The New Day member won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 by beating Daniel Bryan. Kingston then feuded with Orton for a few months and retained the title against him. As of this writing, there is reportedly no animosity between the two anymore.