Joe Hendry is working on "selected by hand" for the Randy Orton WWE WrestleMania 41 match

WWE

TNA Wrestling World Champion Joe Hendry is working on “hand-selected” as Randy Orton’s opponent in WWE WrestleMania 41.

After Kevin Owens was forced to withdraw from the announced WrestleMania 41 match with Randy Orton three weeks before the event, Viper was advertised to take on a mystery opponent that will not be revealed until the match takes place on April 20th.

Speculation was rampant about new WWE signatures like Rusev and Aleister Black, but it was Joe Hendry who appeared in Las Vegas instead.

His WrestleMania debut mark marks yet another milestone for Hendry in 2025.

Speaking to Slam Wrestling’s John Powell, Hendry has discussed his year so far.

“If you’re not at the top level, you won’t be chosen to tackle rule over Rome. Unless you know what you’re doing, you won’t be chosen by hand to wrestling Randy Orton in his 20th WrestleMania.

“Joe Hendry doesn’t need to pivot. This is Full Sin. We’re going to do incredible business for TNA wrestling. That’s all we have to worry about. We don’t need pivots.

“Look, if John Cena says I did a good job, I’m going to go ahead and say I did a good job, I’m going to use Cena’s advice too.

“We need to pay attention to the metrics and the instant metrics we have are not available to buy Joe Hendry T-shirts at wwe.com unless they’re refilled while I’m making this call. That’s a metric I pay attention to.

“I’m watching the amount of video clips that come out of that moment with me and Randy. If it wasn’t an iconic moment, WWE and TNA didn’t come out multiple times in a day.”

Following his appearance on WrestleMania 41, Hendry returned to WWE NXT just two days later, confronting Obafemi and Trick Williams, inserting into the conversation for future NXT championship shots.

Prior to TNA’s world title defense against Frankie Cazarian and Ethan Page in the April 27th TNA Rebellion, Hendry explained why he returned to NXT. Click here for more information.

Transcription via Fightful