First Smackdown of 2026 Review
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How does Randy Orton’s return impact the WWE title picture?
Hey guys, this is Denise Salcedo with the world's strongest man, Mark Henry, and welcome to the Busted Open Podcast. To begin the show, Mark and I talk about the return of Randy Orton and how he fits into the WWE title picture.
This is the Busted Open Podcast.
Do we want to kick things off with Randy making his return, uh, confronting Cody Rhodes as well as kind of uh mixing in Cody Rhodes with Drew McIntyre because there's uh a lot there in terms of what the prospects are gonna look like for Cody Rhodes, given that, hey, it we're officially getting into, you know, Royal Rumble season. This is uh, you know, things are gonna get very important. And then from there, Russell. Mania is gonna hit us like a big fish pretty soon. Um, it's gonna happen. Like that's it. We had uh Randy return. We he's been gone for what feels like forever, even though it's probably just a couple of months. Um, but he's back, tells Cody Rhodes that he's interested in the title. This is not the first, this is not the second time he has said that.
So he's clearly made his case that he wants that title. And out of respect for Cody Rhodes, he's letting him know beforehand. But at the exact same time, we are working into a match, uh, three stages of hell that we are gonna be seeing next week in Berlin on SmackDown with Drew McIntyre versus Cody Rhodes. So l start wherever you want. Uh, where what are you thinking in regards to the storyline?
Well I I love the fact that we got Randy Orton and we've been talking about that. That was the first thing I said last year is We knew the process of advancement was by subtraction. uh having Randy go away while John Cena was having his moment because with the greatness of both guys, their histories would clash. So Randy had to go away. And now that John Cena's gone and Randy is back. Um This is Randy came back actually respectfully. Listen, man. No hard feelings. But I'm back and I'm I'm I'm not coming here to the go to catering. I'm coming here for the title. And you're the guy that has it. And Don't don't make it a me a evil, you know, Randy Orton thing. It's a ambitious Randy thing. I wanna have seventeen titles.
I wanna have eighteen titles, nineteen, twenty, be the all time greatest of all that's who Randy wants to be. And that's who Randy can be. But he's gotta be in that situation. Uh I I thought it was cool as hell. And Wood says that uh Cody is gonna have the title. Because that's another thing, I mean If he's looking for the title Who do you want Randy to take the title off of? Do you want Randy to take the go at it with Cody? Or do you want Randy to go at it with Drew? And then have Cody come back in the back end and go Hey. You were talking about Taking the title from me. Now you have it and I want it. Make it happen. Like so it's like there's so many things that you can intricately put together to make it happen to where it makes sense because
I don't wanna see Randy Cody right now. Randy Cody right now would be Dilutin' the waters. Because we don't have a lot of super baby faces right now. Like the guys that I love to watch, you know, I mean we got Sami Zayn, you got you just you just got a few guys. You know, Carmelo Hayes is trying to work his way into being um a uh dragon off. He's trying to work his way into being a Sami Zayn. Like there's it it it's gonna take time. So that being said Um This three stages of hell is gonna be very important. Because it's gonna dictate Where Randy goes and who he goes into this web.
All right. So you make some really good points right now. You kind of shook my world a little bit because I was kind of under the impression, well, I I've been kind of, I guess in the last like 12 hours, my head and my mind have essentially shifted because, all right, initially when I was looking at this with Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre, my thought process was: damn, Drew can't lose again. Drew has been losing. He's also been doing a hell of a job with the storyline. From where we were at a couple of months ago with Drew and Cody, um, you know, think about like Russell Palooza during that time period.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How does Randy Orton’s return impact the WWE title picture?
0:00–6:14
2
What are the possible opponents for Randy Orton’s championship chase?
6:14–12:05
3
Why is the upcoming three‑stage match in Berlin crucial for Cody and Drew?
12:05–18:35
4
How will Randy Orton’s legacy shape WWE storylines in the next two years?
18:35–31:20