Standing in the ring, in front of thousands of people, holding the World Heavyweight Title proudly over his head, WWE superstar Randy Orton has become the youngest champion at the age of 24.
It all started when he was a child watching his grandfather and father wrestle, being backstage around his favorites such as Jake the Snake, and seeing how the business works.


Although he was involved in the wrestling lifestyle, after high school he wanted to do something different and joined the marines.
“ I was in the Marine Corps for a year and a half and decided that I really wanted to wrestle instead,” Orton said.
After the marines, he moved to Louisville and began training for another year and a half, and then in 2000 he was given a chance to wrestle for the WWE, where he became known as the Legend Killer. He earned the nickname by taking down some of the biggest names in history such as the Undertaker, Sgt. Slaughter, and Shawn Michaels.
“My favorite match was in 2004 at Backlash against Mic Foley,” Orton said. “It was a hard core match where anything goes and I tried to slam him into a bed of about 10,000 tacks but I ended up with them all in my back.”
Shortly after the match against Mic Foley, Orton won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time against Chris Beniot. He has since won that title two more times and prior to that title he was the Intercontinental Champion and a Tag Team Champion also.
Wrestling isn’t all fun and games though. He endures a heavy travel schedule, traveling 600-1000 miles in four days and is only home three days a week. Traveling all over the world some of his favorite places to wrestle are in Manchester, England, Wellington, New Zealand, and for the troops in Iraq. They perform about four shows per week unless they are overseas where they could possibly do six or even seven shows. But now that him and his wife Samantha have a baby girl things have changed.
“Now I see what’s more important, everything is more in perspective and things couldn’t be better,” Orton said.
When Orton is out of town, Sam stays at home to take care of Alanna. Also she makes any appointments that Orton may need when he comes back home. To help Sam, her parents Michelle and Michael Speno come over to give a hand.
“I like to be around her,” Michael said, “If it helps them out then it’s just a by-product.”
Although Orton may be out of town a lot, it’s not different than any other job. He is home during the middle of the week instead of being home on the weekends.
“Nothing really is different,” Sam said, “every job you have to make sacrifices.”
On WWE Raw, Orton’s character is an arrogant person and is better than everyone else. But at home he is a completely different man.
“He’s a very good person, ”Michelle said, “he’s a kind hearted good person, a great family man.”