Randy Orton has revealed a match he thinks earned him the respect of the fans.
The Viper was a recent guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live with Jelly Roll being the guest host of the show. During the talk, the Singing star asked the former world champion which is the favorite match of his career.
Randy Orton picked his 2004 Backlash match against Mick Foley because it showed fans a side of him which they had never seen before:
“Gosh. You know, I’ve been asked that before and that’s a very hard question because I’ve had a lot of matches, I consider to be like up there as my favorite. But when I was 24 years old, I wrestled Mick Foley at Backlash in a hardcore match.
This is in 2004. That match probably was the most important one in my career, I think, because the fans saw me put myself, put my body through something they had never seen me put my body through before. It was a very physical match.
Lots of blood, lots of sweat, some tears. But I think I earned the fans’ respect that night. From then on, I could tell something was different in the air when I would walk through that curtain.”
The Backlash bout saw Randy Orton defending his IC title against Cactus Jack. Evolution was banned from the ringside so The Legend Killer was on his own.
The brutal bout featured many unnerving moments including one where the Evolution member was thrown into thumb tacks after missing an RKO. The match ended with Orton delivering an RKO to Foley onto a barbed wire baseball bat.
You can check out Randy’s full interview on Jimmy Kimmel including an angle with Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul below: