Randy Orton reached the final of the King of the Ring tournament for the second year running during "WWE SmackDown."
Having won his qualifying four-way during last week's "SmackDown," Orton met "WWE Raw" qualifier Sami Zayn in the semi-finals of the tournament on Friday. Zayn had qualified in the opening bout of the tournament, eliminating Penta, Dominik Mysterio, and Bron Breakker in the process, while Orton had eliminated Aleister Black, LA Knight, and Carmelo Hayes.
The bout itself saw Orton start strong with his signature suppressive offense, wearing Zayn down with rest holds, strikes to the body, and back suplexes both inside and outside the ring onto the announcer's desk. For his part, Zayn fell into his natural underdog role, catching Orton with his own momentum to deliver moves like the Blue Thunderbomb but only for a near-fall; he did seek the finishing Helluva Kick, but at each attempt his opponent found a way to avoid it. The same could be said for the RKO until the closing stretch, with both weary of one another's finisher, avoiding and attempting them until Orton won out to hit his for the winning pinfall.
Orton is now one step closer to righting the wrong of his loss last year, coming in controversial fashion when Gunther had a pin counted despite Orton's shoulder clearly being off the mat. He will have to wait until Monday to find out his opponent at Night of Champions, with Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso set to face one another on "Raw."
