When it comes to wrestlers in the WWE Universe who have benefitted greatly from Vince McMahon, it's hard to find a name more prominent than Randy Orton.

A third-generation WWE Superstar who signed with the promotion at the turn of the century and has been employed consistently ever since, Orton has been booked like one of the top dogs in the promotion despite issues with harassment, steroids, and attitude concerns that had the Knoxville, Tennessee, native in hot water multiple times over the years. Surely if anyone had kind words to say about the former Chairman of the Board, it would be Orton, right?

Well, in an interview with Bill Apter of WrestleBinge, Orton did admit that he has love for McMahon but ultimately is happy he is no longer running the show in WWE, as he simply didn't have enough respect for the long-term physical well being of his wrestlers.

“Listen, I love Vince. He gave me so many opportunities, but I think it was kind of time for him to move on. It's unfortunate that it happened in the way that it happened, but it's nice having people in charge of me that understand how important it is for you to be home for birthdays, home for Thanksgiving, and home for Christmas,” Randy Orton told Bill Apter of WrestleBinge via Fightful.

“Vince McMahon had RAW on Monday night live where everyone's — he didn't care if you had kids. I came to him when I was 35, and my back really started going, and I pleaded with him like, ‘Man, I got to not do as many shows, maybe you have to tour, and be able to recover,' and he just looked at me and was like, ‘Oh, I need you on those shows, Randy. Mother Nature gets us all.'

“To hear that and go, ‘Okay, well, I guess there's no other thing I can do other than just wear myself out down to the nub until I can't walk anymore for this man.' [Despite] all the opportunities he gave me, it's nice having him out of there. It's nice having his son-in-law, Triple H, running the game. Nick Khan is great. Everybody [from] TKO that's come in, stepped in, they seem to get it, and it's just a different era. I think the way that they care for telling nowadays and make sure that the talent is good, and if they need a little bit of a break, we're only human. They get it most of the time.”

Fortunately for Orton, he has since had back surgery and now returns to a WWE Universe where performers in their 40s aren't expected to work every since house show in order to sell a few more tickets between house show tapings. If WWE's goal is to have another half decade or so of the “Viper” at the top of the card, embracing a smaller workload in the interim to ensure more big-time matches in the future feels like a call Mr. McMahon should have made years ago, and Paul “Triple H” Levesque is wise to embrace now.

Randy Orton reveals how back surgery helped to save his career.

Elsewhere in his conversation with Bill Apter, Randy Orton discussed his back injury, noting that after living in pain for years, he was finally able to get the relief he needed, all thanks to his ability to find the correct doctors for the job.

“Oh yeah. I had top neurologists telling me that, you know what, you use a great career, you have a life after wrestling, and you want to be comfortable,” Randy Orton told Bill Apter of WrestleBinge via Fightful. “You don’t want to be in pain the rest of your life. We’re gonna fix your back, but you’re gonna have to stop wrestling. The six months that I was out, I had that in the back of my head, and it was tough. It was mentally very challenging, and I didn’t really know what the future held for me. But I was able to find a couple doctors that had done the exact surgery that I needed on some MMA guys that went back to the octagon, competed and were successful, and had longer careers. So I knew that these were the doctors that I needed to have put me under and go under the knife with.”

What would the WWE Universe have looked like if Orton never returned? Well, it's safe to say fans would have been robbed of multiple good to very good matches at the very least, as “The Viper” has been on fire since he returned at Survivor Series last fall and looks to be working some banger in the future too, depending on how things shake out. In the end, it's safe to say his patience in waiting for the right surgeon was an absolute hit.