Lynch

Hey guys, I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, it's not my best work, but I think the topic is still interesting. Thx for reading.

Orton can be saved

With his lukewarm crowd responses, not as good Rock-like promo’s, and general lack of direction in character, recently crowned ‘top baby face of Raw’ Randy Orton is soon to find himself treading water in the sea of Raw’s just another mid carder, unless of course he can rebound his character, and I have an idea that may possibly work.

We all know he was no way near ready to turn face, especially insta-face, he is literally the perfect heel. He won’t become Austin or Rock version 2, let him be Randy Orton version 1, since he was pretty much there already. When HBK just returned, I had to watch anything involving him, when Orton’s “shoulder recovery updates” cut into one of his promos, I couldn’t help but laugh, 91%, that’s great stuff, the face that doesn’t know he’s a heel. I became a great fan of a guy I’d hardly seen in the ring.

Of course he becomes full fledged heel joining HHH’s Evolution and becomes the most credible IC champ in years. Then….wins the world title, Evolution turns on him and he drops the strap back to HHH. And, as fast you read that last statement was about the same time it took, now he has nothing to do. The best new talent on Raw in years, peaked and started dropping already, he’s 24. There’s no point in him winning the Rumble, then getting the title back at WM, he’s already had it, the payoff is 7 months old, he beats HHH is all.

Face Orton is dead in the water, he’s lost that edge he had, but a lot of the damage can be repaired before it’s too late, by turning him heel at New Year’s Revolution. Not only turn him heel, have him rejoin Evolution. He can go on this tirade of how the fans made him weak and the only real success he saw was with Evolution, he won the IC and World belts under them, beat every living legend to walk in front of him, and the wrestling world was touting him as the next big thing. Now he has no title, rare title matches, and gets booked against Edge, who has no title, and has been here forever and never accomplished what he has.

The Elimination Chamber could end like something like this: Still teasing the breakup yet working together, Batista and HHH have eliminated Jericho, Benoit and Edge, (which sucks of course, but this is hypothetical) and now focus to Orton. Batista and Orton brawl as HHH recovers for a minute, Orton begins to get the better, as Big Dave is looking for help from Trips, yet he sells being to hurt at the moment. Suddenly, Batista spins out of an RKO attempt to nail his power bomb, he covers, HHH kicks him off, he gets up, pissed, and they argue face to face for a few seconds then come to blows. Batista is killing HHH, gets him hooked for the power bomb, has him airborne, only have the battered Orton pull him back down from it. Orton then RKO’s the surprised Batista as HHH gets up, hits a pedigree and pins him. They stare each other down, HHH gets smiles, Orton lays down for HHH and hands him the title once again. Batista gets a beat down from them who are joined by Flair. Show ends with a bloodied Batista being stood over by HHH, Orton and Flair arms raised with the belt. And on a sidenote, something important happened at a PPV, a major face and heel turn, money well spent.

The next night on Raw, the next stage of Evolution is in the ring, HHH explains no matter how good he is, he still makes the occasional mistake, and his mistake was to trust a backstabber like Batista, while he let his jealousy get the best of him when Orton took the world belt from Benoit, a man who admittedly has a great record against him. But Orton had to make a sacrifice to come back, and he made it last night. This would make Orton’s face fans livid as he would be perceived as a lackey of Evolution. He can go back to being a team player, being the same character he was before, while they can slowly, that’s the key, slowly build towards a meaningful breakup down the road. Plus this is 2004, people don’t have to like each other to work together. HHH, Orton and Flair don’t have to play nice, but they don’t have to fight either. Don’t hold your big gun for a surprise, fire it often, and Orton is “it.”

So that’d be generally my idea. Thanks for reading.
Rob Lynch