Opinion #5 - Randy Orton & Christian.
This one's long overdue, don't you think?
Dear Orton marks, read if you want, but just be warned, I bash Orton's character and what Creative do with it a lot with my logic. If it offends you, I advise you not to read on because I'll probably piss you off. If you want to read on, go ahead and feel free to express your view. I'm more than happy to hear it. (:
Dear Those-Of-You-Who-Aren't-Orton-Marks, also feel free to read and express your opinion. :')
This will be a long post. The next two paragraphs are a quick overview of both guys' careers so skip that if you want.
Christian debuted in the WWF in 1998. He was involved in various stables but obviously, the highlight of his career then was tag-teaming with his best friend, Edge, who was at the time portrayed as his “brother”. They went on to win the World Tag Team Championship seven times and pretty much made a career out of ladder matches. People often overlook the tag team titles today and you can’t blame them considering how shit that division has gotten lately but if you look back then, there were some pretty strong tag teams and the matches were entertaining so to win amongst those seven times isn’t easy. Following this, he worked on his singles career, winning the European Championship, Light Heavyweight Championship, Hardcore Championship and the Intercontinental Championship (3 times). He won the tag team titles two more times, once with Lance Storm and once with Chris Jericho, which led to his heel turn in 2003/2004. He feuded with Jericho, which involved Trish Stratus and Lita. Then in 2005, he left and went to TNA as “Christian Cage”. Four years later, he returned to ECW, where he won the title twice. But seriously, ECW? His return didn’t get half the response it should have. Why? Because these kids have no fucking clue who he is. So where do they put him? ECW. Bro, he’s better than nearly all the guys you have on Smackdown and RAW. He was on RAW for a while before ending up on Smackdown. After an injury at the hands of ADR, he reunited with Edge. Following Edge’s retirement, he earned his place in the title picture, winning a battle royale.
Randy Orton debuted on TV in 2002. He was in the stable Evolution, won the IC championship once and shortly became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion at the age of 24. I enjoyed his Legend Killer gimmick. He made a decent heel. I could see he was talented and worked that persona well. As far as I can tell, he wasn’t involved in any solid feuds during this time, going from one legend to another and crushing them. In 2006, he was suspended for two months for “inappropriate conduct”. He won the tag team titles with Edge as Rated RKO once. He won the Royal Rumble in 2009. Within seven years, he won eight world titles. When the title reigns started flowing in like that, he got boring. I used to enjoy his matches but then that bloody RKO was just coming out from everywhere. It was boring.
Maybe this was just bad luck for Orton. By that, I don’t mean he was unlucky in winning so many titles. How can you call that unlucky? I mean, he was unlucky that there was nothing to those titles. There weren’t any particularly memorable storylines and gimmicks. The legend killer persona didn’t really work into his title shots and aside from that, I found him boring. He wasn’t competent as a babyface, as we’re seeing currently. Christian, for me, could work both the heel and babyface well. This is the biggest problem I see with the feud.
Christian defeated Alberto del Rio at Extreme Rules 2011 in a very good match. I enjoyed it, not just because Christian won but because both guys put together a great match, particularly ADR, who is much less familiar with ladder matches than Christian. Less than a week before this PPV, Randy Orton had been drafted to Smackdown and we knew what would happen. Two days later (for those of us who read the dirt sheets… Or anyone who was online that day really), our suspicions were confirmed.
Randy Orton strolled into Smackdown on his first day with nothing. By the end of the night, he walked out the World Heavyweight Champion. On his first day. I don’t care how high up the ladder he was on RAW. The fact of the matter is, he came to Smackdown so he starts from the bottom like everyone else does. Creative want to give him the title? Make it look as though he earned it rather than this whole “let’s see what the audience want” crap! Because they’re totally gonna choose Mark Henry or Khali over him, right? Or whoever the hell was in the ring then…
My dislike for Orton has gotten to the point where I can’t even listen to Voice without getting annoyed. I liked Rev Theory before this shit went down, dammit!
I didn’t care if this would lead to a big feud. A two-day, first world title run after thirteen/seventeen years is just pitiful. And outrageous. Jericho hinted something massive would be coming.
And he sure as hell was right. Massively shit.
This was, quite possibly, one of the worst feuds I’d ever had the displeasure of seeing unfold. Cole/King just beat it to the top spot.
An Orton heel turn was teased early on when the night he beat Christian for the title, he said, “Remember, I’m the champion now…” or something along those lines. Instead, we had a Christian heel turn. I wasn’t going to complain! Christian makes a brilliant heel. The problem was… Aside from slagging off the WWE universe, like every heel does… I didn’t see much heel-ish about him and I saw no babyface qualities in Orton.
By Capitol Punishment, I was begging for this feud to be over with. I didn’t care if Christian was thrown out of the title picture because he was just getting buried and it got to the point where this feud was literally painful to watch.
For my Randy Orton sucks and makes a rubbish babyface rant, please go here.
Christian played whiny heel pretty well but again, I didn’t see anything heel-ish about him. If you think Christian’s character got screwed over, you’ll understand what I mean. He’s whiny and bitchy but… He doesn’t play dirty and he does everything for all the right reasons so I don’t quite understand why he’s being portrayed as the heel when he’s clearly more face-esque than Orton. It just astounds me how people buy Orton’s crap though. He’s a terrible babyface yet he gets cheered every time. I can’t even begin to comprehend the reasoning behind this. I just don’t understand and my head is hurting just trying to.
So we’re fed with atrocious booking with Orton punting people and RKO-ing them through the announce table every chance he gets, which, might I add, is the role of a heel, not a babyface and also, incredibly boring. We hear the same bloody thing, week after fucking week. We’re bombarded with comments regarding Orton’s “temper issues” and they make it so blatantly obvious that this is how Orton will lose at Money In The Bank. Christian winning was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing in that he was now a two-time World Heavyweight Champion. It was a curse because this feud was clearly not going to end soon. At SummerSlam, Orton will win that title back and hopefully, Christian will be saved from this hideous storyline.
Orton acts like a heel all the fucking time. GUESS WHAT, GUYS?! The top babyface on Smackdown is a fucking psychopath! Wow! That makes so much sense(!) Orton’s “threats” are so bad as well, it’s laughable, haha. Just please, sort this crap out. As if people actually eat this shit up.
Now correct me if I’m wrong but traditionally, the babyface is supposed to stand as a role model. He’s supposed to overcome obstacles and work his way to the top. He gets screwed over by the heel but eventually comes out on top. He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t lie. He sure as hell doesn’t have temper issues.
In the PG era, the babyface is supposed to be a role model to kids. Do we want kids as psychopaths? No. No, we do not.
Now is it me or does Christian fit that description better than Orton? I mean, Orton’s the one that’s been fluking wins by bad calls from referees. He then loses via disqualification. Christian breaks no rules and rightfully wins his matches. Is it really so hard to keep people in character? If you’re gonna make Orton a babyface, make him act like one. In other words, fucking sort out your booking! If you’re gonna keep Orton like this, just turn him heel already. Get your shit together, Smackdown.
Also, how does it make sense to have the Champion in the opening match and the number #1 contender in the main event? How? I don’t give a fuck who they are. Don’t make someone unpopular the champion because more often than not, he will be main eventing! Never should the number 1 contender be main eventing with the champion opening! It just defies all logic in this world. Let’s not even get onto the number of empty seats there are when Orton’s in the main event…
Don’t even get me started on how Sheamus has been thrown in and out of the title picture. A Sheamus face turn can only be a good thing. I’m just hoping he overthrows Randy fucking Orton.
Hopefully, you understand why this feud is so bad and why Randy Orton’s character’s booking sucks so much. You should also understand why I can’t stand Randy Orton. If not, read more here. (Same as previous link posted.)
If you would like to share your view, as I said previously, feel free to.
