Cody Rhodes Casts Doubt On Randy Orton's WWE Future (WWE News)

Cody Rhodes had some interesting comments about old Legacy mentor Randy Orton during a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. The reigning WWE Champ will team with Orton on Friday's episode of SmackDown - they'll be in tag action against Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker on the show as things continue to build towards next weekend's Crown Jewel PLE over in Australia.

There, Rhodes will compete for the Crown Jewel Championship against Raw's reigning World Heavyweight Champion (and leader of The Vision) Seth Rollins. Currently, Randy doesn't have a spot on the card, but the real news here is what Cody had to say about him to McAfee.

Rhodes hyped the coming tag bout, then said: "We don't know how much longer Randy has left. I don't want that to creep up on me!". Was this Cody's way of subtly dropping hints about an incoming Orton retirement tour? John Cena's own retirement tour will wrap up at Saturday Night's Main Event on 13 December, so there'd be room on the schedule for WWE to shift attention over onto Randy in the new year.

He's a surefire WWE Hall Of Famer as it is, so could we be set to embark on Orton's own grand farewell soon? Don't rule it out. It's either that or Cody was only trying to add some more spice to the SmackDown match. Maybe he simply realised that he doesn't have too many more chances to team with his friend and wanted to draw some attention to that.

Orton Previously Said He Plans To Wrestle Into His 50s

Randy himself stated that he'd like to wrestle into his 50s back in May 2024. If he achieves that, then he'd have surpassed the 30 years milestone as an active member of the WWE roster, which is pretty insane to think about. Orton debuted back in 2002, so he'd have to reach 2032 to make that a reality.

Again, don't bet against it.

That 50-ish goal would, however, ice a possible retirement tour until at least 4 years from now. Currently, the RKO maestro is 45 years old. So, if he wants to call it quits once he hits 50, then he'd need to go easy on retirement chat until he's 49 or so. That means everyone should start circling 2029 on their calendars!

Randy has previously pointed out that he's thankful for the way Triple H lets veterans like him take care of his body. He doesn't work the same relentless match schedule he once did under Vince McMahon, and that has definitely extended his career. Remarkably, the WWE lifer thought he was about to call time on his run in 2023, but plans changed.

Will he hit the big 5-0, or is Cody Rhodes onto something when he suggests that the end is nigh for Orton?