SK's take on reports that Randy Orton could miss Wrestlemania 34
It's been a strange year for Randy Orton. He had a memorable feud with Bray Wyatt that ended in a disappointing match at Wrestlemania 33, lost the WWE Title to Jinder Mahal and failed to regain it several times, and then went on to feud with Rusev before losing at Survivor Series as part of Team SmackDown and finding himself against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at Clash of Champions.
Now, new reports are surfacing that Randy Orton's recent WWE run is about to get a whole lot more confusing as the Superstar, who is arguably still one of the WWE's top stars, might not even be appearing for next year's Wrestlemania 34
Prowrestling.com have reported that recent WWE advertisements are suggesting that Randy Orton is not scheduled to appear at several dates in the coming weeks and new year, so looks to be taking on a lighter schedule.
They go on to add that Orton is scheduled for WWE Live Events on a bi-weekly basis, but only until February 11th, 2018, after which, Orton is not advertised for any WWE events, including television tapings and Pay-Per-Views.
Further to this, Orton is seen in any of the Wrestlemania 34 advertisement pictures, including this one shown on Prowrestling.com
In fact, the only date that Randy Orton is currently advertised to appear on is the post-Wrestlemania 34 episode of SmackDown LIVE. This had led to people believing that Orton is going to miss Wrestlemania 34, and will make a return on the post-Wrestlemania show.
Obviously in the WWE plans can change, but Orton's advertised dates and the fact he's not advertised for anything after February 11th, 2018 clearly suggests that Orton will be written off of WWE programming at that point.
The WWE Superstar recently revealed to Edge and Christian on their podcast that he was auditioning for movie roles, so it's possible that Orton will be taking time off to film a movie in a similar move to John Cena, and most recently The Miz and Becky Lynch.
At the moment this is all just conjecture based on the evidence provided, but you can't argue with how it looks. We'll have more on this as it develops and as things are officially announced