Report: Why Randy Orton Laid Out Nick Aldis With An RKO Ahead Of WWE WrestleMania 41

Randy Orton was originally scheduled to face Kevin Owens at WWE WrestleMania 41, but those plans were scuppered due to Owens' dealing with a serious neck injury.

After Owens' announcement that he was out of WrestleMania, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis informed Randy Orton that he didn't have a match at WWE's biggest show of the year, which prompted Orton to hit the former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion with an RKO. This fuelled speculation that Aldis would be Orton's WrestleMania open challenge opponent, but WrestleVotes has reported there was no real consideration to having Aldis face Orton. The angle was instead done to simply "kill a week of TV."

"We are told WWE had no real considerations to have Nick Aldis as Randy Orton's WrestleMania opponent. The segment that was done where Aldis took an RKO was done to 'kill a week of TV', with Joe Hendry already locked down at that point. We are told, however, that Nick Aldis is open to competing down the road if the story is right and appropriate for him to come back and compete," WrestleVotes said on WrestleVotes Radio.

Joe Hendry was ultimately Randy Orton's opponent at WrestleMania after the 14-time world champion handpicked Hendry from a list which also included the likes of Jeff Hardy and Uncle Howdy.

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