How to screw up a great push opportunity...

[Phoenix]

...the case of Randy Orton.

Everyone remember the Royal Rumble? When Orton won, he was the most talked about prospect, he was on his way to his peak, Paul E. praised him, we praised him, we thought he's gotten over that damn Triple H jinx he had. He was on his way up, he just punted Vinnie Mac, he won the Rumble, fans were chanting his name.

Question is, how the hell did it go from this, a great moment to the following:

A feud set up with Shane McMahon, granted they had a great match at No Way Out, but the first time he came out and Shane "punched" the hell out of him, this starting killing the momentum already. It continues to feuding with Triple H, hiding in his house, getting kicked the hell out of his house, then getting screwed out of his night at Wrestlemania to Triple H.

This continues to winning the title in a weak way, yes, he had his title won by a pin over Triple H, but via a Six Man Tag. Now two PPVs on, he had one weak match and technically lost a squash match to Batista in a cage last night at Extreme Rules.

Question is, how WWE screw up their best opportunity to put Orton as THE heel of the company? Bad booking is one and unfortunately, where I am an Orton fan, what they have done to him, and Rhodes/Dibiase has been a real shame given how January was so promising. Where some say Orton loses viewers, I say it's the booking, purely because right now, had Orton NOT been in this programme with his former Evolution buddies, he would be watchable, It's just becoming predictable on where it will go.

My question to you guys is, what can they do to Orton now? What can they do to give him some credit and raise his stature again?

My answer would be out of these:
1. Get him off TV for a while. Now as stated, I'm an Orton fan so I would oppose this as easily as other fans, but if I want to renew his stature, make us miss him, where I don't care for Trip's absence, putting Orton away could give him some time to renew things. What about Priceless seeing the light, kicking the crap out of him and moving on? It would put them over and give a good way of getting Orton out of our "switch off" views.

2. Put him against a newbie champion. With a new champion most likely to happen with Batista's injury, I think that fans don't want Cena or Orton in the title picture. With Punk just winning the WHC, what about an up and coming guy? Who might you ask? I would actually be bold and say MVP. I think he's currently the only guy outside of the Main Event scene on Raw I could back as a champion. With him losing the U.S. Title just last week, it could provide immediate elevation. This would give something fresh for Orton, to chase the title from a guy who in his mind "doesn't deserve it". While he's at it, get Priceless to persure the tag titles, make Legacy the real deal! The only other suprise would be a face Edge coming over from Smackdown, but a fat chance that will happen (well it is Edge though, anything can happen).

3. Draft him. Again another unlikely situation, but Smackdown would give him something fresh which I feel Raw simply cannot provide him. He's face about everyone possible bar Big Show and anyone outside the Main Event. He needs some fresh feuds and it's a shame he can't do anything new unless the about mentioned (MVP winning the title) happens.

What do you think? How would you do it?

 

[ztwhite]

Simle answer for what happened to the Age of Orton - creative and plummeting ratings (though the latter is not totally his fault).

How they could fix it - have him beat the shit out of Dibiase and Rhodes for not helping him last night. Who cares if there was a cage, they could have climbed over it - been done before.

Beating the hell out of Tweedledee and Tweedledumbass would give him the bad ass label again, provide another cheap amount of heel heat and allow Dibiase and Rhodes to get out from underneath Orton.

Then, allow Orton to become the dominant main event level player he almost became when he returned from his broken clavicle. Remember, he was trashing all the storylines and saying how he was better than anything they had in the WWE and that creative was a bunch of morons.

It would obviously take a few weeks to rebuild his dominant foreshadowing, but after last night, they have to do something after making him look like Batista's bitch in the cage.

 

[davidavent]

I dont know if its a good idea or not but maybe its time to bring a 4th member into priceless to give it some freshness, then maybe they could actually be put over as dominant... either that or, I hate to say it because priceless could have been a good thing, break em up and have Cody and Ted vs Randy for a while...

 

[parkerabc123]

i honestly think now that batista is injured and will most likely be out of action due to his upcoming surgery, that the belt should be put on Dibiase. Then they could have a similar thing they had when orton won the title from benoit and Evolution beat the hell out of him, but instead it would be orton and rhodes turining on dibiase. That way Orton will draw much more heat and stay in the title scene, and dibiase would be a face and actually go somewhere rather than what he is right now.

 

[OhYouDidn'tKnow]

I would drop this stupid "viper" gimmick he has right now because it is getting him nowhere. Every week it is the same old promos from Randy and it is getting boring. Orton got more heat out of "destiny" gimmick becasue we were actually able to pay attetion to him without falling asleep. And if that dosen't work I would end the Legacy stable because Cody and Ted are just not cut out to be major heels in the WWE yet.

 

[Chill]

parkerabc123
i honestly think now that batista is injured and will most likely be out of action due to his upcoming surgery, that the belt should be put on Dibiase. Then they could have a similar thing they had when orton won the title from benoit and Evolution beat the hell out of him, but instead it would be orton and rhodes turining on dibiase. That way Orton will draw much more heat and stay in the title scene, and dibiase would be a face and actually go somewhere rather than what he is right now.

I'm not so sure the belt should be put on Dibiase just yet, look what happened to Orton when he was rushed into the title picture (his first reign bombed unfortunately due to the WWE's hurried booking). No doubt Dibiase will one day be a champion but I think it may be a bit premature to put the huge task of being champion on him at the moment, plus he's still in the process of getting over and I just feel he wouldn't be ready yet. But that's just me...

 

[LEGEND KILLER]

Orton was the most talked about and now everybody has turned their back on him...i would like to see him drop legacy tonight or have legacy turn on him and Orton go face...give it a shot see what happens...


Giving him time off is a no way right now with HHH, micheals and Boretista now out and kennedy fired they dont have much going on there...

 

[Age of Orton]

With Batista hurt/injured WHY would WWE drop the belt on him? if Orton was/is to get it back tonight? it's insane.

 

[Muttley]

Orton's character seems to be missing something now...I hate to take a cheap pop at Triple H, but I really blame Triple H's win at Wrestlemania on Orton's character being so weak now. I think that Orton's promos were a little too dramatic at times, but I thought that he was so good with his unstable looks and how he always seemed to have some kind of plan up his sleeve...but those plans were always just throwing Dibiase and Rhodes into the ring just for them to get whooped...Orton was going into Wrestlemania with all this steam destroying McMahon's left and right, and then they felt that Triple H needed revenge against Orton...Once Vince was kicked in the skull, that should have been it...no coming back to beat down the stable, same goes for Shane...they should have just kept building off of that and not boring us with 2 on 1 handicap matches and making Rhodes and Dibiase look like morons. When Rhodes and Dibiase cut their first promo together about how they are better than others in their generation with our Ipods and YouTube, I was glad that they seemed to be pushing them in that direction but once they got with Orton, they lost all credibility....I think that what WWE needs to do is really let Legacy branch out, they shouldn't just confine Rhodes and Dibiase to being Orton's henchmen that get beat down every week...they need to let them kind of grow into their own, while Orton keeps a watchful eye on them I think...if Orton's role is to "mentor" these two, then how about mentor them with how not to look like fools every week...oh wait, Orton is starting to look like a fool too.

i honestly think now that batista is injured and will most likely be out of action due to his upcoming surgery, that the belt should be put on Dibiase. Then they could have a similar thing they had when orton won the title from benoit and Evolution beat the hell out of him, but instead it would be orton and rhodes turining on dibiase. That way Orton will draw much more heat and stay in the title scene, and dibiase would be a face and actually go somewhere rather than what he is right now.

I think that with the Colons taking on Priceless tonight, that would be a great opportunity to have Orton interfere in the match somehow and let Priceless pick up the win and get a little bit of heat...then when they get their title shot against the Colons, actually let them win without Orton's help, and let them be on their own and still help out Orton when need be. I just think that Priceless could still have a fighting chance being apart of Legacy, if they didn't continue to make them die hard jobbers for Orton.

I think as far as Orton's character goes, there really isn't any going back for it. It almost seems to me that Orton is never consistent...one week he seems unpredictable, the next week he's a coward and seems like he doesn't know what to do. Unless they continue this "viper" deal and just have him starting to attack whoever at any time and kind of taking a page out of Edge's book and becoming more manipulative and opportunistic, but in a more twisted way.

 

[instantkarmaVA]

When Orton first came back he had this "tweener" thing going on with his character. He was on fire. Trashing faces and heels. It worked. Then he started Legacy and for a few weeks it was kind of cool. But having people do your work for you makes you look very weak after a while. He needs to be on his own now to get back on track and appear strong. At least have better members in your group if you want to look strong. Priceless pretty much are fodder for the uppper card faces. At least when Flair had the horsemen they were established heels or turned faces with crediblity(except paul roma..he sucked)

 

[sonamagun]

Him running away from people and looking like a wimp is killing him. Add to the fact that his best men, Dibiase and Rhodes are constantly getting squashed ruins legacy and Orton.