Who Benefits From Randy Orton As World Heavyweight Champion?

[LSN80]

The same principle as the John Cena thread in the Raw section. Go post in it!

The purpose of this thread is to determine who benefits by Randy Orton holding the World championship. I see a number of variables that are in place, and by the end, I want to see if it's beneficial overall for Orton to be holding the World Championship right now. I'll be looking at other superstars, the title, Randy Orton himself, and the fans and evaluating if any/some/all beneift from Orton as champion. Feel free to throw in whatever criteria you like in order to come to your own conclusion.

Other Superstars: At first I felt it was a mistake when Christian dropped the title to Randy Orton just five days after the Extreme Rules PPV. In retrospect, its been the best thing for Christian's career. He's been given the chance to be a top heel on Smackdown for the first time in his career, and he's been doing phenomenal work as a result, the best of his career. He and Orton have undeniable chemistry thats been evidenced in both their matches and their promo work together. This has also benefitted Sheamus, whose had two very good main events in back to back weeks against Orton. There's not a large main event scene on Smackdown, but those involved in it are benefitting tremendously by working with Orton(and vice versa). Because of that, it's entirely beneficial in relation to other superstars for Randy Orton to be World Champion right now.

The Title: Randy Orton is now an 8 time World Champion. The only other superstars on the Smackdown roster who've held the World Title are Christian and Sheamus. Christian has only recently become a main eventer, and Sheamus is being rebuilt. Orton brings credibility from having won his first title back in 2004 almost 6 years ago, and from being a consistent main eventer since 2007. His wars with Cena and HHH amongst others have prepared him to be the definitive number two man in the company and the top star on Smackdown, and Orton is the only star who can truly elevate the title andbring instant credibility to it rather then a "wait and see" approach. Further, he seems to be embracing his fan friendly image both inside and out of the ring, which only makes him more valuable as champion. As such, it's beneficial to the title itself for Randy Orton to be holding it.

Randy Orton: Orton was brought to Smackdown to be the man they build the roster around. Him having the title only enforces that fact. After spending time out of the main event after losing his title and subsequent rematches with Miz, and his feud with CM Punk, Orton is doing some of the best work of his career since winning the World Title. Two of my favorite Randy Orton matches ever have been with Christian, and as someone who despised his matches with Sheamus on Raw last year, Ive thoroughly enjoyed his matches with him on Smackdown. Orton seems to be riding a wave of confidence in Smackdown being "his brand", and it's showing in everything he does. Randy Orton has fully benefitted from holding the championship.

The fans: Randy Orton seems to be fully embracing his fan favorite image, evidenced no more then by him slapping hands with the fans last night on Raw for what to me is the first time ever. Because he's buying into his character, the fans are getting behind him as champion as never before. Good mic work + good story arc + good matches = satisfied fans, and Orton has delivered on all three. There's no other way of looking at it that because Orton is being embraced by the fans, he's doing everything he can to make them happy, including being involved in the best storyline in the company right now. I can't think of a compelling reason why Orton as champion is bad for most fans, instead, I find it to be entirely beneficial.Looking at the other superstars, the title, Orton himself, and the fans, I feel its universally beneficial right now that Orton be holding the World Championship. He's getting a chance to be the man and is thriving in the role. He's having the best TV and PPV matches of his career, and he's carrying himself like one of the true stars of the company. Both Christian and Sheamus have been elevated since Orton won the title, and he brings an instant credibility to the title that few others within the company can. In my mind, it's very beneficial in the here and now that Randy Orton be World Champion, but that's just my opinion. What say you? Who benefits from Randy Orton as World Champion?

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

The show's ratings haven't benefited at all. YEAH I WENT THERE!

But really.. I don't know. Maybe only Orton benefits because he has finally shown signs of being like human and that there is a reason people like him. He is showing some energy in his promos, and the fans are really reacting well to it. The guy also seems to be enjoying it as well.


I don't think other guys are benefiting because the ratings have gone down since he been on that show.. That and I just feel like Orton is such a boring worker that they have to be careful who they put him with because they like putting him in long matches. I haven't been able to figure out why tho.

 

[blueskyy]

!!Yawn!!

The title holder always benefits by having the title! That's a giveaway question, really!

Who else? Let's see... WWE perhaps? That's another no brainer right there. WWE obviously choose someone suitable for the job, right? Have they benefited just yet? Well, you'd have to look at the sale figures and analysis the ratings. The marketing team would probably have the answer.

You're over analyzing stuff.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Randy Orton has became a good worker since his move to Smackdown, him being the World Heavyweight Champion shines a positive light on the product WWE put out there. If your World Heavyweight Champion is consistent and repeatedly having good matches, it benefits both the performer, the show and the Championship itself. Randy has had near perfect matches since he went to Smackdown. His matches with Sheamus recently have been better than the combined calibure of their matches during their '10 feud on RAW.

His performances not only benefit him, but his opponent. Although Randy Orton is the World Heavyweight Championship, putting on the good displays also makes those like Sheamus and Christian, even when falling to defeat, look quite good and its gets them over as being able to go "toe-to-toe" with the main guy of the brand.

Randy Orton is a good choice for World Heavyweight Champion, he's second to Cena in rankings as "face of the company." The whole idea for his SD! move was so that he'd be over on Smackdown the whole time and that his name could carry the brand, what's actually happening is due to guys like Christian and Sheamus stepping up, the show overall is looking good.

 

[Harthan]

All of your points are valid, really. Sheamus and Christian are benefiting - Sheamus gets to reestablish himself, Christian does a nice heel turn, the title gets a big name to hold it, Orton of course looks great, the fans get good matches and a good feud. The problem is this all happened way, way too quickly. In my opinion, they should have put Orton in a filler program with Barrett for a month to establish himself on the brand, had Sheamus and Christian wrestle at Over the Limit, a three way including Orton at Capitol Punishment (Christian retaining both times, of course). Make the three way grueling, have Christian sell some sort of injury. Then, the SD after the PPV, do the whole fan poll thing, yadda yadda yadda, Orton wins the title and we basically enter the same program we do now except there's now no rushing through the thing, Christian gets a proper title reign, and you basically have two really easy SD main events on PPVs. So I suppose everyone is "benefiting" from the Orton title reign, but they missed the boat on a lot more benefit by rushing his reign.

 

[LSN80]

I don't think other guys are benefiting because the ratings have gone down since he been on that show..

Im not sure how the two correlate. I know the ratings have gone down since Orton became champion, but Im not sure how that affects the other workers. Would you truly say Christian hasn't benefited from this? Him dropping the title to Orton was the catalyst for a great heel turn and easily the most interesting feud in WWE right now. Sheamus has gotten a main event rub after floundering in the Raw mid-card by main eventing 3 Smackdowns in a row, two against Orton.

That and I just feel like Orton is such a boring worker that they have to be careful who they put him with because they like putting him in long matches. I haven't been able to figure out why tho.

Im guessing the reason they're using Orton in long matches is that theyre trying to expose him to a new audience that perhaps didn't watch Raw, or rather, really establishing him as the face of the show. Mission accomplished for me. I truly buy into Randy Orton as the face of Smackdown, and the go to guy to have good, long matches.

!!Yawn!!

You're over analyzing stuff.

Rude much? At least contribute something if worthwhile if youre going to post.

The title holder always benefits by having the title! That's a giveaway question, really!

No, they really don't somtimes. I don't think John Cena benefits from holding the WWE Championship right now, and Im a huge mark for the guy. Undercard talent holding irrelevant titles don't benefit if they're not being elevated, or the title is preventing them from doing so. That or if the chase is better then the catch. KAne last year was putting on terrible matches at the end of his title reign, and was being exposed as over the hill. Did he benefit from that? Heck no. You have to look at it on a cas to case basis, rather then making clueless, shortsighted statements.

Who else? Let's see... WWE perhaps? That's another no brainer right there. WWE obviously choose someone suitable for the job, right? Have they benefited just yet? Well, you'd have to look at the sale figures and analysis the ratings. The marketing team would probably have the answer.

So, you expose here that you have no idea what you're talking about here again. The right men always hold the titles? What if ratings dip when a certain superstar is champion? (which they have with Orton) Is WWE truly benefitting? This also makes the assumption that the right superstar always holds the title. The Great Khali in 2007, anyone? WWE really picked the right man for the job there, eh?

I think if this post shows anything, its your inability to analyze, which is kinda the point of posting.

 

[martymcfly]

I thought I read somewhere on this forum that the WWE gave the title to Orton because they want to build the smackdown show more or less around him. That kind of makes sense, because a lot of people are big Orton fans (for reasons that escape me but I digress), and I dont think it's a secret that WWE would love to increase the ratings for smackdown.

Now I don't really know what the demographics are with respect to how many people are only casual wrestling fans that will only tune into a show if someone they like is a champion, but if there are a significant number, then perhaps it is wise--for now--to give Randy the belt. Outside of the undertaker, I don't think that there is anyone else on smackdown that has as large a fanbase of casual fans as Orton.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Who benefits? So far, it looks like anyone and everyone involved in the title picture has benefited from it.

Since coming to SmackDown!, Randy Orton has been doing some of the best work of his career in my view. He's off Raw, he's the top babyface of the blue brand, he's every bit as over as he's ever been and, to me, Orton just seems...re-energized I guess for lack of a better term. Does Orton really need the title? Probably not, but his run thus far has been great in my view.

Christian also has benefitted because Chrisitan has legitimately moved into the main event. Christian is someone that I've been a fan of for a long time and has always had the goods to be a main event player. His feud with Randy Orton over the WHC has proven that Christian deserves to be where he is. While I think it should have happened a long time ago, at least Christian has finally been elevated to where he belongs. And, if he ultimately winds up taking the belt off Orton at some point, it just makes him look all the better.

Sheamus has benefitted because he's gotten back on track. Since winning KOTR last year, Sheamus has kinda floundered. He had a great feud with John Morrison but, since then, he just lost his way on Raw. In his case, the Draft did for him what it's done to Orton: it's given him a new environment to start out fresh. He's back in the main event scene, he's shown that he deserves to be there and he comes across, overall, more formidable now than he was during his feud with Orton when he was WWE Champion.

The title itself benefits because look how interested and invested people have become in the WHC. When Christian won the title at Extreme Rules, it was a fantastic moment. He drops the title on SD! less than a week later, 2 days to be precise though 5 days kayfabe, and the internet blows up. People were ready to string Orton & Vince McMahon up side by side, douse them with gasoline, light 'em up and watch 'em burn. Some saw it as part of a much larger picture. And everyone was wondering what was ultimately going to happen. Whether you liked the idea, hated it or were willing to see where it went, you paid attention.

The fans have also benefitted. The matches we've had featuring these 3 players have been fantastic. The initial Christian vs. Randy Orton match is, in my opinion, the best television match of the year so far, Christian vs. Orton @ Over The Limit is a legit contender for overall match of the year, the triple threat between Christian, Sheamus & Mark Henry was another helluva main event match. The two Orton vs. Sheamus matches we've has on SD! were tremendous and the match last night between Christian & Sheamus was great. The latter was also the weakest of those matches listed so that should give an idea of the quality of matches the WHC picture has produced.

While it's true the ratings have gone down somewhat since Orton won the title, I don't see it as anything to be concerned about. SD! airs on Friday nights. More people go out on Friday than any other night and that's especially true now summer's here. The weather's nice, school is out, summer movie season is in swing, people just wanna get outta the house, etc.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

Im not sure how the two correlate. I know the ratings have gone down since Orton became champion, but Im not sure how that affects the other workers. Would you truly say Christian hasn't benefited from this? Him dropping the title to Orton was the catalyst for a great heel turn and easily the most interesting feud in WWE right now. Sheamus has gotten a main event rub after floundering in the Raw mid-card by main eventing 3 Smackdowns in a row, two against Orton.

No one is watching the show. That whole tree in the forest metaphor comes to mind.

Im guessing the reason they're using Orton in long matches is that theyre trying to expose him to a new audience that perhaps didn't watch Raw, or rather, really establishing him as the face of the show. Mission accomplished for me. I truly buy into Randy Orton as the face of Smackdown, and the go to guy to have good, long matches.

Err.. People who watch Raw probably watch SD. I doubt there are many SD only watchers given the numbers. They have been putting Randy in long matches for the better part of his face run.. And most of these longer matches have been flatter than Brie Bella. On Raw and on PPVs, Orton's longer matches have actually killed the crowd. Not just like kill them, but like embarrassingly kill the crowd considering how much time goes into the guy.

I understand that the crowd loses their mind for the guy but that doesn't necessarily mean that he should be the focus. The guy doesn't carry lesser talented guys very well. We already talked about the ratings drop. And the guy is very limited as far as building interest into what he is doing.

It can't be a mere coincidence that last year, after Hell in a Cell, the guy might as well been a background prop considered how they didn't even use him as a third man in the Cena vs Barrett stuff.. And Orton was in title matches!

 

[Mac Attack]

Pretty simple answer here everyone in a way benefits.

Smackdown

Smackdown has an 8 time world champion leading its brand. This is not only good for the brand but good for the company. I mean in all honestly would you want Christian as the face of your company? I'm sorry but he is not that much of a draw.

Orton

The champion always benefits when having the title. I mean who doesn't want the extra title reign to put on their resume. If I rememeber wasn't Orton complaining about how they used him around Mania, now he is world champ.

Smackdown Roster

A lot of the guys on the Smackdown roster have never held a World Championship belt before. This means that the ones who get to feud with Orton are gaining the experience from the best in the business.

Fans

Who doesn't like to see some Orton action. Orton is one hell of a performer and knowing that he'll have a feud so long as he is a champ is a good thing.

 

[ULTRASTARZZ]

The show's ratings haven't benefited at all. YEAH I WENT THERE!

But really.. I don't know. Maybe only Orton benefits because he has finally shown signs of being like human and that there is a reason people like him. He is showing some energy in his promos, and the fans are really reacting well to it. The guy also seems to be enjoying it as well.


I don't think other guys are benefiting because the ratings have gone down since he been on that show.. That and I just feel like Orton is such a boring worker that they have to be careful who they put him with because they like putting him in long matches. I haven't been able to figure out why tho.

- Of course the ratings will not go up. There is barely any star power, and it is on Friday nights. For now, maybe the ratings are that terrible, but it will go up soon enough ...

 

[Deviancy]

- Of course the ratings will not go up. There is barely any star power, and it is on Friday nights. For now, maybe the ratings are that terrible, but it will go up soon enough ...

I think you're right, I think the numbers will eventually go up.

The ratings aren't the greatest but to be fair, SD has taken a lot of hits over the years.

The loss of Eddie, Rey taking time off, Taker taking time off, losing Edge to an injury, being moved to different networks 3 times, and the fact it comes on at 8pm on friday night, those things didn't help the ratings. But I think Sin will eventually be as big of a dray as Rey when it comes to the latino audience, and I think once the company finds someone who can bring to the company what Taker does, and Edge did, that'll help as well.

But it isn't Orton.. Orton is just going to do for SD what Cena does for Raw, and thats to keep the kids watching. They need someone to pull in a larger teen audience...

 

[AngryCenaFan]

Randy Orton.
That's it.

Look at the ratings since he became champion, I'm sure WWE will find a way to blame Christian when his night as Champion was more watched than Blandy Boreton last week and the week before.

 

[steven87gill]

The tragedy of all this is that until the whole Christian feud started, Randy was pretty much over with young and old, it feels as if It's almost like Vince doesn't want the internet to like him now that he's really hit the big time.

''No, you internet fans boo the shit out Cena for no reason, so you're sure as hell not allowed to like Randy Orton now that he's making me money.''

 

[Deviancy]

Ortons a big league boy, while Christian, he's a mid carder and he should be in matches against Kofi or other mid cards, not Orton or the WWE's big guns. I wasn't a fan of Orton's to begin with, but after his match with Benoit, and his feud with Taker I started to get impressed, and his feud with the McMahons and Hunter was a blast. And the punt thing, I've always gotten a kick out of that.

In short, I see Christian in the same way I see Matt Hardy.

But we all have our favories and our least favorites.

 

[ianskarbek]

But we all have our favories and our least favorites.

That's a great way to put it man. I personally love Orton, so I really enjoy watching SD and the PPVs and rubbing it in everyone's face when he defends the title yet again. Are his matches predictable? Yes. Are they exciting? Yes! There is just something about the way he does work that makes him such an awesome performer.
Getting back to the original question, the people who love Orton benefit from him having the title! It's a rather generic question. If Christian were the champion I would not be as excited for things, same as if it was Sheamus/Henry, I just wouldn't care as much. However other people would! I loved it when Miz was WWE champ and now he isn't, Raw just isn't as much fun because you know that Cena is going to hold on to it for a long time.
Anyway you split it, Orton is still the champ and hopefully will be for a while. When someone else comes along, I'll be sad, but someone else will be happy! Such is the way of life.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

If nothing else, Christian is getting a huge rub from this title feud. When was the last time a heel was given 3-4 PPV's to regain the championship? Normally the WWE motto is "2-and-out". You have your PPV title match, you lose, and you get one more try with a different stipulation added to it. THe Miz got several shots as well, but he was the WWE Champion for long enough to deserve it. Christian's time in the main event has been brief, but I think he would have been a pretty lackluster champion if he had kept the belt after Wrestlemania. Did you see how fast the fans stopped paying attention to him once Orton took the belt? The only way to keep him from dwindling was to turn him heel... So if nothing else, Orton getting the title has turned Christian into a legitimate threat.

 

[mancpenguin]

I personally preferred seeing Orton as a heel character. Though he has somehow kept all all heel type behaviour such as punting people but now gets cheered for it. He is still somewhat or an anti hero that gets cheered for. I'm surprised Christian hasn't spoken more about this in his promos. A bit similar to how Jericho pointed out about HBK's actions when he was faking injury to win a match.

I don't think the WWE has ever really believed Christian could be used as long term champion. It's a shame he wasn't given a few weeks with the title and then lost it at the first pay per view he defended it at.

 

[WTAllen]

We get nothing!

Faces in WWE right now have no character towards them besides just being..facey. What's Cena bring us? Kofi? (I'm having a hard time thinking of faces).

Faces only have character in their individual feuds these days. Think of guys like Cody Rhodes, huge depth to his character. Now guys like Cena or Orton..not much.

This has changed.. Bret Hart was known for being the best technical wrestler around and for having a legacy (though I prefered heel Hart). Foley was known for his "faces" and good guy Foley was known for trying to get on Vinces good side but failing.

Faces need character these days.

 

[Ralf E. Chubbs]

I can't help but try and answer in the simplest of terms:

Randy Orton and the WWE