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Posts Tagged ‘Randy Orton’

You know, looking back over the main matches at WrestleMania again, I’d have to say that my favorite match was still the WWE title match between Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena. While the Flair-HBK match had way more emotion, the truth of the matter is that the WWE Title match just had more youth and energy.

You don’t have to be a futures broker to see that John Cena and Randy Orton will be WWE mainstays for some time to come. The question here is where the next big stars are, who are lining up behind them.

I still like the long-term potential of Ken Kennedy and MVP, and Jeff Hardy isn’t exactly new, but his solo work in WWE since returning from TNA is like a fresh start for him. My main complaint, though, is that in both WrestleMania and now the upcoming Backlash, WWE continues to insist on overpromoting the inferior SmackDown brand.

Let’s face it; Raw is where the action is. Let’s start structuring the PPVs to reflect that, shall we?

One 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.

After last year’s disappointing and far-too-average WrestleMania 23, I was almost afraid to watch this year’s biggest PPV event of the year, in case I would be disappointed yet again. Yet despite even the seemingly ridiculous Big Show-Floyd Mayweather match, WrestleMania 24 turned out to be one of the best editions of the annual PPV event in quite some years.

The matches that were not expected to amount to much were played appropriately for comedy, and the matches that were expected to be huge and meaningful were given plenty of time to play out. For a show that lives mostly out of travel trailers, this year’s WrestleMania delivered the goods in a way that it hasn’t for several years.

Signs that we were in store for a solid WrestleMania began early as the Money In the Bank match was given an unexpected twist ending, with underdog C.M. Punk getting the rub and the win over favorites like Chris Jericho, Mr. Kennedy, MVP and John Morrison. That match was given almost 14 minutes to play out and featured some of the best spots of the night.

I cheered when the Batista-Umaga match was kept mercifully short. Batista winning was just another example of WWE trying to convince a completely unconvinced fan base that SmackDown is just as good, if not better than, Raw. No way. All it convinced me of is that the company isn’t spending enough time establishing Umaga’s credibility as unstoppable, and also that they remain committed to overhyping Batista, who’s simply far too overrated for a man with such borderline mic skills and mat skills.

Kane defeating Chavo Guerrero in about 10 seconds to win the ECW title was an unforgivable crush and only continues to demonstrate how little the company cares about the credibility of the ECW brand.

But the Ric Flair-Shawn Michaels match was given a solid, heart-pounding 20 minutes plus to develop, allowing these veteran showmen to prove why they’ve had such lasting careers in sports entertainment. It was everything one could ask for in a retirement match for a man of Flair’s standing in pro wrestling history.

Hopefully, he’ll never tarnish the memory of this match by coming out of retirement for “one more run” endlessly, like Terry Funk sadly chose to do. The Flair-HBK match was my personal favorite of the night and, all by itself, made WrestleMania 24 one of the best in recent memory.

The next indicator that we had a legendary WrestleMania on our hands was when the company swerved everyone on the WWE Title match and, instead of putting the belt back on John Cena, or – heaven forbid! – giving Triple H another title run, the victory was given to Randy Orton, extending his run as a true heel champion and making him anything but an “interim champion.” While the triple-threat match played out nicely, receiving over 14 minutes of air time, it would have been even better had it been given another five minutes or so. Still, the match was hot from start to finish and the surprise ending of keeping the belt on Orton was a refreshing change of pace.

Then, WWE completely shocked me by giving the Big Show-Mayweather match nearly 12 minutes to play out, and managing to make such length seem legitimate despiet the David vs. Goliath matchup. Somehow, they allowed Mayweather to survive the onslaught of the Big Show in a credible fashion that didn’t rob Show of his overwhelming physical threat status. And even though Mayweather earned the improbable win, he did so in classic WWE style by delivering a brass knuckle punch to Big Show’s jaw for the win. All in all, what could have been a crush or a joke match turned out to be a whole heck of a lot more entertaining than last year’s Hair-vs.-Hair match between Vince and Donald Trump, as well as their in-ring seconds, Batista vs. Bobby Lashley. This year’s Show-Mayweather bout turned out to be a far better way to draw mainstream headlines, and deliver an entertaining match at the same time.

The showstopper was the 24 minutes given to Edge and the Undertaker to decide the fate of the World Heavyweight Title. Apparently, the company’s obsession with selling SmackDown as the superior brand over Raw continues, as this match initially held little interest for me. Yet Edge is a legit heel and Taker is a solid worker, even if he is a bit long in the tooth these days.

Given the storyline of Taker’s “undefeated at WrestleMania” streak, the match held a fair amount of suspense, since the question was weather the company was finally ready to pass the torch and allow Edge to be the superstar to end Taker’s WrestleMania streak, or if they were still committed to pushing Taker as a legit title holder/contender.

Given ‘Taker’s win, the fans went home happy at the end and time will tell whether Taker will hold the belt until at least SummerSlam, or if he’s just being used as an interim champ while WWE reshuffles the SmackDown deck to reinvigorate that show after it has been festering for ages.

Personally, I think MVP is the future of SmackDown; but not this time out. Overall, several matches were terrific or even legendary, and the show finally lived up to being the top PPV in the WWE calendar year, after seeming a bit too average – recently and especially last year. Well done, at last, WWE.

As a conept, and even to some degree in execution, last Monday Night Raw’s main event, pitting John Cena and Randy Orton against the entire Raw roster, was a fun challenge. My only complaint is the brief amount of time given for the match to develop and play out. It needed another 10 minutes, at least, to really deliver a great ring psychology payoff.

Still, the concept, delivered by Triple H as the third part of the “triple threat takeover” of Raw, part of promoting the triple-threat main event title match at WrestleMania between Orton, Cena and Triple H, is a fascinating one, and ought to be tried again sometime with more airtime given to the match. It played out like a fine bottle of Riedel, but was all-too brief.

About the only way to improve on it, in fact, would be to somehow have Jeff Hardy be one of the principals involved in facing the entire Raw roster; few people deliver better in-ring psychology in their matches than Jeff Hardy.

While a 4.0 in the Nielsens is no big whoop for most network shows, it packs the equivalent whallop of an ECA stack for Monday Night Raw, which has been riding the low 3.0 range for the past few months during the writer’s strike.

Now that the strike is over, people seem to be coming back to TV again, and that includes wrestling. While WWE Raw is by no means riding high with a 4.0, considering they were drawing almost three times that number at their peak about a decade ago, it’s still an impressive number.

Of course, this is pre-WrestleMania season and interest in the Fed always seems to take a leap up at this time of year, no matter what else is going on. Let’s hope the new viewers like what they are seeing and tell a few friends just how good Cena, Orton and Hardy can be, when they set their minds to it.

Despite an effective storyline that had WWE fans believing in the possibility of a title change so close to WrestleMania, Jeff Hardy failed in his bid to unseat Randy Orton as the WWE champion at the 2008 Royal Rumble on Sunday. They threw everything but Kohler sinks into the title match, but while Hardy and Orton took turns dominating the match, Hardy seemed on the verge of victory, about to deliver a Twist of Fate for the win.

That’s when Orton hit the reversal and an RKO helped him retain the title off a clean victory. The real question now is where the WWE will take the storyline from here. Will they continue to develop the Hardy-Orton storyline that worked so well, or will they switch storylines as the company focuses in on WrestleMania hype?

Given the winner of the Royal Rumble… well, let’s just say it’s looking like back-burner time for Jeff Hardy, through no fault of his own, and unless his character takes a hard heel turn soon, he’ll soon be out of the WWE title picture once again.

This week’s WWE Raw broadcast drew a 3.6 rating, down from 4.1 for the same week last year. However, that’s about what the broadcast has been averaging in recent weeks, so at least it’s staying level.

While many in the industry expected WWE’s ratings to skyrocket as a result of the writer’s strike, due to WWE featuring new episodes every week while other shows go into reruns or are replaced by reality shows, just the opposite seems to be true.

Instead of Raw, SmackDown and ECW benefiting from the wasteland of reruns, it seems are viewers turn out other programs, fewer are also tuning out in general from WWE broadcasts as well. The Republican Party is fond of the saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” meaning that good economic times benefit everyone. In this case, it would seem the opposite is true as well; a sinking tide lowers all boats.

It’s the loss of those who don’t tune in, though; if ratings were based on well-executed storylines, the feud between WWE champ Randy Orton and challenger Jeff Hardy would be drawing in record ratings the way buyers swarm real estate offices when they hear that there is South Carolina land for sale.

Chris Jericho’s return to the WWE was supposed to be huge, but after a very brief run against champ Randy Orton, he has now been inserted into a feud with JBL. Now, I enjoy JBL; both in his normal life outside of wrestling as a Fox Business/Fox News contributor, and his in-ring character over on SmackDown.

However, while it’s a huge move to use a feud with Jericho to bring JBL back as an active wrestler and onto the Raw roster, it’s definitely a step way down for Jericho, whose mission was supposed to be as the Raw savior, delivering us from the Randy Orton era. While the move is a necessary sidestep, perhaps, to avoid overplaying the Jericho-Orton feud too soon, what may be brewing here is the unexpected, and that’s the dramatic popularity of the Jeff Hardy-Randy Orton feud. Hardy, a former TNA champ as well as a multiple-time tag champ in WWE, had been a terrific performer in his feud with Orton and is earning a lot of respect and momentum in his drive toward his Royal Rumble title match.

Whether it’s in the ring or doing charitable work for victims of cerebral palsy, Hardy’s a sentimental favorite to get a surprise win and ride that wave into the WrestleMania main event for a rematch against Orton. That could leave Jericho hanging in mid-card limbo again, as has often been the case in his pro wrestling career.

Jeff Hardy is a great Cinderella story going into the upcoming Royal Rumble PPV.

Along with his brother Matt, the rainbow-haired warrior helped define high-risk tag-team wrestling throughout the 1990s. When the time came to split the pair up and allow the brothers to move on with their singles careers, the process caused so many migraines, Jeff left WWE for TNA, where Jeff Jarrett eventually put the championship strap on him.

So far, Jeff is the only WWE-to-TNA refugee that Vincent Kennedy McMahon has brought back into the WWE. That in itself is a minor miracle; even Kurt Angle hasn’t been offered that deal.

But now, the big question that is plaguing the McMahon family is whether they can swallow their pride enough to put the WWE title on a wrestler who once abandoned them for a minor-league TNA promotion and wore their strap. Certainly, there has been a huge push behind Randy Orton as a heel champ, and the preferred plan would be to keep the strap on him until John Cena returns.

But is that what’s best for Raw ratings and the WWE? That’s what we’re all waiting to find out.

It was unexpected and the kind of match most wrestling fans would give up their gold cufflinks to see. No, I’m not talking about the excellent Jericho vs. Orton match, or the somewhat less than stellar triple threat match between Batista (yawn), Undertaker and Edge.

No, this time I’m talking about the number one contenders match for the WWE title shot at the Royal Rumble next month, between Triple H and Jeff Hardy. On paper, it looked to be an big squash match to continue endlessly promoting Hunter as an unstoppable monster on his way toward regaining his title at the next WrestleMania. Right?

Wrong! WWE threw everyone a curveball by finally having Hunter give the rub to someone else in a match that mattered. For 19 glorious minutes, Jeff Hardy did what he does best, which is to put 110-percent of himself into his match against Hunter, and Hunter played along.

But when the dust cleared, it was Jeff Hardy who stood victorious over Triple H. What? That’s right! Jeffy Hardy, who nearly incurred the lifelong wrath of Vince McMahon by jumping to TNA a few years ago is not only back in WWE for a bit over a year now, but is back in a way he was featured in TNA, but never WWE: in the heavyweight title picture!

Hardy was champion at TNA briefly during his run there, but in WWE had never been featured as more than a tag champion with his brother, Matt. As a singles wrestler, Jeff was never featured higher than as a third-tier contender, wrestling well in gimmick matches but never in contention for a title shot.

That changed at Armageddon. With a win over Hunter, and his work ethic, Jeff Hardy is set to make the Royal Rumble something special this year, as he faces off against Randy Orton. Hardy may not win, but to even get this shot in the WWE is evidence that the old order is changing and a new set of contenders are being groomed for top spots in the company.

Way to go, Jeff! Congrats!

Tonight, WWE Monday Night Raw will celebrate its 15th anniversary. After 15 years on the air, surviving the Monday Night Wars against WCW, the celebration is set to run three hours plus overrun, and the guest list is growing by the hour.

Currently confirmed to appear in some way, shape, manner or form tonight on Raw are the following:

* Hulk Hogan
* Stone Cold Steve Austin
* The Undertaker
* Mick Foley
* Sunny
* Trish Stratus
* Lita
* Eric Bischoff
* Evolution Reunion (Ric Flair, Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista)
* 15-person gimmick Battle Royale featuring stars from the last 15 years

All in all, it’s building up to be a great show, and even greater if The Rock decides to make a cameo. C’mon, Dwayne Johnson, don’t make us beg! Cat5E!

While I’m not thrilled with the match-up, Michaels has carried many a WWE superstar to great matches, so hopes are high for this one. Shawn Michaels comes out of the gate fighting hard and dominates about five or six minutes without allowing Orton even a minor breather.

This is the electrifying Shawn Michaels who thrilled crowds 20-25 years ago but who is harder and harder to find in-ring anymore these days because Michaels is simply too old to be believed anymore. He might not be quite Ric Flair old, but Michaels IS old. Still, five or six minutes like these remind us of just how great Michaels used to be.

Orton finally gouges an eye to turn the momentum around and start looking like a champ defending his title instead of a punching bag for a guy closing in on his 50s. Gotta keep that Legend Killer gimmick going, after all. Unlike John Cena, WWE will never feature Orton on kids party invitations – his character’s too much of an evil badass – but Orton is the champ and the face of RAW from now until probably WrestleMania at least.

They give Orton some time to dominate as well and then go into trading finishers and nearfalls, including a crossface hold that could bring to mind some sad memories for longtime WWE fans, and I think Ross had to choke himself back from calling it the Crippler Crossface.

The finishers get more and more convincing, the drama builds and just when you think Michaels has it locked up, Orton escapes, attempts an RKO that Michaels dodges to set up a superkick … but Orton dodges that and LANDS the RKO for the pin.

Like so many Michaels matches, he works just hard enough to make you wish he were still 10 years younger and worthy of a title change. But it didn’t happen tonight; however, hopefully Michaels’ work ethic rubs off on Orton, making him into a better champion.

WINNER: Randy Orton, to retain the WWE Title
RATING: 8.4