Randy Orton

• Early life Orton was born on April 1, 1980, in Knoxville, Tennessee.[2][3] Son to Elaine and "Cowboy" Bob Orton,[16] he has two younger siblings—Becky and Nathan.[17] Knowing from experience the hardships of life as a professional wrestler, Orton's parents tried to convince him to stay away from the business,[2] and his father warned him that life in the ring meant a life on the road, away from family.[1] Orton attended Hazelwood Central High School, where he was an amateur wrestler.[1][2] After graduating from Hazelwood in 1998,[8] Orton enlisted with the United States Marine Corps. There, he received a bad conduct discharge a year later after going AWOL on two separate occasions and disobeying an order from a commanding officer.[18] Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Private First Class Orton was tried and convicted under a special court-martial and was put into a military prison for thirty-eight days.[16] Training Orton made his wrestling debut in 2000 at the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Association-Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling (MMWA-SICW) in St. Louis, Missouri, an offshoot of the historic St. Louis Wrestling Club headed by Sam Muchnick.[6] There, he was trained by both the promotion and his father, "Cowboy" Bob Orton.[16] He wrestled for the promotion for one month,[19] where he performed with wrestlers such as Ace Strange and Mark Bland.[6][19] Orton also refereed a few matches with World Organized Wrestling, a promotion where his uncle Barry Orton worked.[5] In 2001, Orton signed a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was sent to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in Louisville, Kentucky, where he continued his training. During his time in OVW, Orton wrestled the likes of Rico Constantino and The Prototype and teamed with Bobby Eaton during a tag team title tournament. He won the OVW Hardcore Championship on two separate occasions by defeating Mr. Black on February 14, 2001, and Flash Flanagan on May 5, 2001.[10] World Wrestling Entertainment Evolution (2002–2005) Main article: Evolution Orton's first televised WWE match was against Hardcore Holly on SmackDown! on April 25, 2002.[20] Soon after, Orton became a fan favorite and was placed in a series of matches with Holly.[21][22][23][24] In September 2002, Orton was drafted to the Raw brand, where he defeated Stevie Richards in his debut on the show.[25][26] Within weeks of his debut on the Raw brand, Orton suffered a shoulder injury,[27] leaving him sidelined for months.[28][29] While recovering, Orton still appeared on Raw in his own Randy News Network segment, a weekly vignette featuring him talking about his condition.[28][30] The show interrupted other segments of Raw programming, which caused Orton to slowly transition himself into a narcissistic and self-centered villain.[31] After his injury healed, Orton joined the Evolution stable, which consisted of Ric Flair, Triple H, and relative newcomer, Dave Batista. The group was pushed on Raw from 2003 to 2004, with the height of their dominance occurring after Armageddon in 2003 when all of the men's titles on Raw were held by the members of Evolution.[32] In 2003, Orton spent much of his time helping Triple H overcome challenges from Kevin Nash, Kane, and former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) superstar Bill Goldberg, who were vying with Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship.[33][34][35] Orton joined Triple H in a six-man Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, involved primarily to secure Triple H's title defense, and was eliminated by Goldberg.[36] Orton is the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history. Afterward, Orton proclaimed himself "The Legend Killer", a young upstart who was so talented that he touted himself as the future of professional wrestling. He embarked on numerous stor