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| The Trouble With Orton... |
Michael Campbell |
He's the WWE champion and the company's greatest heel... so why is WWE wasting Randy Orton's talent?
At time of writing, Randy Orton is the WWE Champion and has been off-and-on for the best part of 2009. It’s a position that the 29-year-old rose to in swift fashion, thanks to favourable support from management and a genuine case of superior natural ability. Indeed, Orton has long been touted as the next huge star in WWE, something which was evident as far back as 2003. There was an era when being a nine-time World Champion would have all but guaranteed cross-over stardom, but in the modern age that isn’t quite the case. Surely though, one would think, at the very least, Orton is a truly credible headliner… but has he genuinely attained that status or is it an illusion? Is this really ‘The Age of Orton’, or just one we’re being fooled into believing?
“I think Vince has been very smart to groom Randyand in how he’s been grooming Randy,” said Terry Funk in his biography. Unfortunately, somewhere along the road, the wheels came spinning off that theory because at FSM, we’ve been thinking exactly the opposite – as time has gone on, Vince McMahon’s team have done young Orton many an injustice in our eyes. That isn’t to say it’s always been bad though – there was a point in time when the company was making all the right moves with the son of ‘Cowboy’ Bob.
Insulated as they are, WWE creative are the sort of people who rarely learn from their own errors; one such pitfall that they undergo time and time again is the manner in which they introduce new talent to television. In 2002, Randal Keith Orton debuted under the shortened, catchier moniker of Randy Orton as a white-meat babyface sliced from the same cut as Bob Backlund. Yes, that’s the same template that didn’t work for John Cena, Edge or even Dwayne Johnson as far back as 1996. Of course, Randal was initially a flop, despite such efforts as booking him to go over Lance Storm and Christian in back-to-back encounters on Raw. Recent history has proved repeatedly that the modern fan simply isn’t interested in the goodie-too-shoes brand of babyface. WWE finally realised this, but only when Orton was side-lined with the first of his many shoulder injuries. While benched, Orton was permitted to cut entertaining promos in the form of news updates on his condition. Portrayed as obnoxious by Jim Ross on commentary, Orton’s potential as a heel was only too obvious…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 46 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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