Is WWE turning Orton face?
Sunday, April 13th, 2008One of the biggest risks in professional wrestling is the decision to turn a bad guy good, or a good guy bad. Usually, this is done when a star’s career is faltering, or thier gimmick simply isn’t getting them over with the crowd. Sometimes it works quite well; other tmies, it can be a career killer.
None of those situations describe the career of “the Legend Killer,” Randy Orton. Despite a brief stint as a babyface when he was breaking away from the Evolution group a few years ago, Orton has remained comfortably over with the crowd ever since he delivered a Legend Killer finishing move on WWE Diva Stacy Keibler to cement his heel status.
That momentum eventually lead to Orton being the heir apparent last fall when John Cena went down with a career-stalling injury. Initially seen as a “transitionary champion,” until the return of bigger stars like Triple H or John Cena, Orton shed that label and cemented the WWE’s choice to put the belt on him by giving him the win over both men at WrestleMania last month.
So why mess with a winning formula? It’s not like Orton’s career needs a figurative cell phone repeater to boost his image even more. Yet consider the evidence.
At WrestleMania, many fans cheered Orton and booed Cena, due to Cena’s career suffering from overexposure. (The same thing happened to The Rock, in his day.) And on last Monday’s RAW, the initial makeup of the Backlash main event was going to be Randy Orton versus JBL; both are heel characters as currently promoted, and JBL’s character would seem to be the hardest one to turn.
Granted, later in the segment, Triple H came out and inserted himself into the Backlash main event picture, but even Triple H is a borderline face at best, since he is most notoriously known for his extended hardcore heel run of five years ago, a run that set the mold for hardcore heel runs the likes of which Randy Orton has been on for the last couple years.
WWE could have protected Orton’s heel status by matching him up against a true face, like Jeff Hardy or Chris Jericho. Instead, the company is pitting Orton against all-out or borderline heels. Ultimately, they may just be testmarketing a face turn for the Legend Killer champion.
