In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Randy Orton said he was supposed to be a surprise at the Survivor Series War Games match but with so many rumors about CM Punk being there, they wanted to spoil it a week before as the company didn’t want people to be pissed when he came out instead of Punk.

It turns out that Punk was the surprise too as he came out after the credits rolled much to the shock of 17,000 fans inside the Allstate Arena.

Orton said that the day of the show, Triple H went up to him to tell him a few things and then drop the bombshell.

“So he told me a couple things. And then he went, ‘One more thing – Punk’s returning tonight,'” Orton said. “I thought he was f*cking with me. I said, ‘You’re joking,’ and he was like, ‘No, I’m not. This is something that just happened in the last few days, yada yada yada,'”

The Viper added that the old Randy Orton would have been pissed as it was a defining moment for him to return after over a year, but he had grown a lot and everything worked out great.

Orton was also asked about the Vince McMahon scandal and while he said that he wouldn’t be where he is today without Vince McMahon, the stuff he read hurt his heart.

“But, f*ck, I’m reading this shit. What you’ve seen and read, I’ve seen and read. As far as commenting on that, it f*cking hurts my heart. It hurts my heart,” Orton said.

Orton also put over Triple H and Nick Khan, saying he’s excited to work for WWE and having HHH and Khan in those positions is amazing.

You can read the full interview at https://www.si.com/fannation/wrestling/news/allow-randy-orton-to-reintroduce-himself