It's been an interesting year for Randy Orton with his Royal Rumble and WrestleMania wins arguably overshadowed by that abysmal House of Horrors showdown with Bray Wyatt and an underwhelming feud with Jinder Mahal which culminated in a Punjabi Prison match. At 37 years old, Orton's career may be winding up and that could be reflected by his new schedule moving into 2018.
While The Viper will be present at every SmackDown Live and the Royal Rumble PPV in January, he's only going to be working two weekends' worth of live events which is obviously a huge drop.
Orton is also being advertised for the February 6th edition of SmackDown Live but nothing else in February or March which could mean he'll end up sitting out next year's WrestleMania. It does, however, seem unlikely that he would miss the Showcase of the Immortals so we'll have to wait and see how things pan out. Either way, it could be that this is the start of Orton winding down his WWE career.