Lets look at this from a business perspective.
Do we really need a marketable name, profitable figure, who is over with the fans, can be placed on just about anything and make it sell, who can put on top quality in-ring matches, has a history with the company, is a former nine time World Heavyweight/WWE Champion, has been the top heel in the company, one of the top faces and in a company that lacks star power is nothing but a star and an asset, and isn't even in his late thirties yet, do we really need him?
It's pretty self self explanatory.
I think this is probably the best case for Orton in the whole thread, other individual points aside. I literally got a headache (seriously) from reading a lot of the crap that people said both pro and con as it pertains to Randy Orton, and now I take my turn at adding my two cents.
Personally, I don't think that the WWE has been hurting in his absence in the slightest. People may make their criticisms of the recent happenings in the WWE, but I don't think anyone can say that the WWE has been worse for wear without Orton. There may be some people who do, but I don't see him being incredibly missed. I don't hear a lot of people demanding to have Randy Orton back, I don't see posts filled with outrage that he isn't back yet demanding that he be placed on his rightful pedestal upon return, I don't hear people talking about how much they've missed The Viper and how dead either show has been without him.
So what does that say? I think it says that regardless of everything Dragon Saga noted, the WWE doesn't really need him and it wouldn't make a difference if he was canned, never to return or not. If you're Randy Orton, I'd take note of that and get my shit together, maybe reevaluate my priorities and decide whether or not I give a damn about keeping my job. I'd go back to the drawing board and start thinking of a clever way to reinvent myself or improve the appeal of my character somehow to make sure that if I were to be absent again, the crickets aren't louder than the fans chanting for my return. I'd be humbled before myself and realize that not only am I lucky to still have my job, but that if I don't take on a different attitude, approach it more seriously, and maybe with a little more respect for the status I enjoy, that there are a whole line of talented guys right behind me waiting like sharks in the ocean to take my spot.
What options are there for Randy Orton? Go to TNA? Sure deal, and that's going to afford him the same status, the same credibility, the same opportunities, or the same paycheck? We all know the answers to those questions, none of which are favorable for him. Like it or not, Randy Orton without the WWE is no big deal. Yes, he's talented, but the genius of a guy like Vince McMahon is that he knows the talent is only as big as the stage it has to perform on, and without that stage, Orton is just another wrestler trying to look like that's where he belongs. He's not going to be a game changer in TNA, their acquisition of his services isn't going to take TNA to another level, nor will it take him to another level.
We as fans have plenty of options available to us as far as wrestlers go, there's plenty of guys to choose from to be our favorites and most hated. Wrestlers by nature of the business don't have that luxury. They can't choose to have fans adore them, or even hate them, we have to choose it. If the WWE decided tomorrow that Randy Orton has outlived his usefulness, we would be fine, the WWE would be fine, and someone else would take his spot in no time making Randy Orton a distant memory. WE don't need Randy Orton back, he needs us back, and he needs the stage the WWE provides back more than anything.
