Georges St-Pierre can wrestle, strike, grapple and dissect a fight better than almost anyone who ever stepped inside the UFC Octagon — but the RKO is clearly a different beast.
The UFC legend recently shared a clip of himself learning Randy Orton’s famous WWE finisher, breaking down the positioning and mechanics before taking a shot at actually hitting it on a training partner.
GSP eventually went for the move, and while it wasn’t exactly the picture-perfect RKO Orton has spent decades making look effortless, St-Pierre clearly wasn’t afraid to keep working on it. He had some fun with the attempt afterward, posting the clip with a message playing off Orton’s famous catchphrase, “RKO outta nowhere! 👊😂”
Now The Viper has officially weighed in. Orton responded directly to St-Pierre’s post on September 11, clearly amused to see one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time borrowing his signature move. Rather than giving GSP a technical breakdown, Orton kept it short and took the whole thing as a compliment.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery #GSPouttanowhere”
St-Pierre retired from MMA competition after defeating Michael Bisping in 2017 to capture the UFC Middleweight Championship, adding a second division to an already ridiculous résumé that included nine successful UFC Welterweight Championship defenses.
Still, there are levels to this RKO business. GSP may have spent his career making elite fighters look helpless, but Orton has been dropping people with that move from just about every angle imaginable for more than two decades. For now, GSP gets credit for trying — and apparently Randy Orton gets a kick out of seeing his finisher show up in an MMA legend’s training session.
What did you think of Randy Orton’s reaction to Georges St-Pierre trying the RKO? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
