R.K.O.

[tiger_rick]

Thoughts on Randy Orton?

Seems crazy to say about someone who has held the "world" title 12/13 times, won a couple of Royal Rumbles, been in Mania main events and worked with almost everyone great there has been in the last 30 years but he could have acheived more couldn't he? He's had a shitty attitude at times and seems to have spent most of the last ten years coasting. He's been unlucky with some braindead booking decisions too particulalrly when he'd fall victim to Trips everytime he looked like being THE guy.

He seems in a good place these days. He's in great shape, he looks superb, his work is smooth and he talks well enough but he's still just trotting along when there are guys with one tenth of his talent getting pushes. It's been an odd career.

[Fatty Facesitter]

His heel run at the tail end of this year has been great. Sadistic Orton is the best Orton IMO, both from an in-ring perspective and also in terms of his promos. It suits him to a tee. With Bryan going great guns with his heel turn on Smackdown, I'd move Orton to Raw in the new year and put him back amongst the top heels on the show. A sadistic heel Orton taking liberties with the likes of Balor, Rollins etc would be fun to watch. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

He’s a guy that had ‘top guy’, generational talent but came up in a snake pit alongside Batista and John Cena, who had the same.

I think that alone killed his motivation, and the rest of his career has lived downwind of that.

[WeeAl]

He can do everything extremely well, he's smooth as silk and is effective as both a face and a heel (although much more suited to being a heel). Any move that he decides to do, I don't know if there's anyone else that could do the same move and make it look as good. He has incredible timing, looks like a million dollars and when motivated he can have some brilliant matches. He can also come accross as a lazy fucker and just get by doing the bare minimum a lot of the time. His match with Rey at TLC is a perfect example of that. If Orton doesn't feel like it, he'll phone it in. If he does, then he's one of the tippy top men about, and has been for the last 14 years. 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Used to be good until Arn Anderson mentored him and turned him into the dullest man on earth. Randy Orton of 2004 looked to be the next Rick Rude,

[Bellenda Carlisle]

I love him, always have. I think he needs to do more gimmick stuff though, not OTT cartoon stuff but something more like his legend killer or violent mental illness phases. Have him just be the ultimate nasty wily veteran bastard or something for a while, something to sink his teeth into.

[Loki]

The guy has had the same, create-a-wrestler look for his entire career.  He never changes it up, never tweaks his character or look or tries something new.  He's the living embodiment of what the WWE look for in a wrestler, with none of what I look for in a wrestler.  He's been good, even great a times but NEVER looked like fulfilling his potential.

[Kaz Hayashi]

I’ve never been able to tell if he’s always in a shit mood, or if he’s really good at playing the part of a bored wrestler in a huff.

If it’s the latter, and he’s nailed the acting, it’s a shame he’s picked such a mundane character to master.

[Supremo]

I genuinely feel like he peaked with the Foley feud. He's never been bad, and he's had flashes of brilliance, but for a guy who's been featured so prominently for so long, I'd honestly struggle to name my five favourite matches of his. He's got such a dull, samey style and he's done so little to change up his act and look that it all just merges together and nothing stands out.

[CleetusVanDamme]

He's had a great career, by most standards, but I'll always see him as wasted potential due to how good he was so young. Evolution Orton was a genuine prodigy, and carried himself like a future GOAT. The closest wrestling's ever been to having a teenage Messi-like figure.

Sometimes you need to get that initial run/turn/win spot-on to properly make a guy, they fucked it up with Orton. At least they learned from it and played the Batista turn* perfect from start to finish.

*Off topic but, shit, they were playing that perfectly before the feud even properly started. Look at this (masterful) bait and switch they pulled just to gauge crowd reactions to a Batista/Triple H feud while Orton was bombing:

"You still should have beat Jericho".

[LaGoosh]

Other wrestlers have quoted him as saying that he likes to play it safe in his matches. This has led to him being consistently good but it's so consistent that he's boring as fuck. You can tell he doesn't want to take any creative risks in either his matches or his promos which just leads to almost everything he does being completely predictable and dull.

Basically I'm saying he should be doing more jumping splits.

[AdamTH17]

It's a good job for him that he's excellent at his job, because he's clearly not still wrestling out of passion. He's a great asset for the company to have. Great look, name value, capable of getting reactions working as a face or a heel, has a style which will produce a watchable match with almost everyone on the roster (looking at you, Jinder) and works a safe style in the ring. I just think he knows that he's reached his ceiling in WWE, so there's no point in putting in the effort when he's already gone as far as he can go. He doesn't need to push himself, so why force himself to put in a shift when his spot as an upper-midcarder and future Hall of Famer is already secure?

For me, he's the epitome of bland. I know exactly what I'm getting out of a Randy Orton match. Wish he put in a bit more effort to make himself somewhat interesting.

[LEGIT]

I was just thinking about him the other day. For years he's been a chore to watch IMO, yes he's been in many a good match/story but for a man who on paper 'has it all' he's really got nothing.

The few times I'm watching a PPV now it's either exciting matches from the newer crop or intriguing (but bad) matches from the legends/big names. Randy is there in the middle and his match often falls flat with the live crowd and with me at home (or I just skip it.)

But he's been around for 15 plus years, doing very much the same stuff. I'd love it if he did a Jericho or Rhodes and went away to get a bit of fire back, but that's unlikely.

[Carbomb]

This is where a second big promotion like wCw would've been a good thing to have. In the old days, someone who got stale could jump and "freshen up" a bit, and maybe jump back again. I reckon if they were still around now, Orton would now be back in WWE having gone south for one or two runs. A shame TNA couldn't pull their heads out of their arses to make a better fist of being competition. NJPW's probably too much of an arse-ache for Orton to consider as a settled-down family man with a routine.

[Michael_3165]

Generally skippable. He can have a good match with the right people but other than his 04 run he has been bland as fuck. Not fussy if he retired or not.