Six months ago, Randy Orton was about to win the Royal Rumble and was being positioned to be cemented into the main event firmament in the WWE. While his run has been given the nominal treatment, one can only wonder if the WWE could have done more with him so far. Now, while I'm not the biggest Orton fan in the world and can think of ten different wrestlers I'd like to build around as a franchise heel for my company, Orton's there and he isn't going anywhere.
Instead of just being there, though, Orton could be so much more. He could be one of the top faces in the company. Now, I know I've criticized Orton for being boring in the past, and you really can't be boring as a face. However, there were signs of charisma there. Yet, every time he let those traits shine through, the WWE stifled him.
Let's take a look at the signs. He punted Mr. McMahon when the boss was about to fire him for messing with his annoying and sometimes manly-looking daughter. He has a quick-strike finisher that could end a match at any time. He has great poses that pop the crowd. So... when he was getting the pops he was getting earlier in the year, why not let the crowd turn him face?
Right now, there may be an equal number of legit main event faces to heels, maybe even moreso. But when you have the chance to make money, you go for it. Regardless of what Vince McMahon thinks, the WWE itself is not a homerun. It needs stars, whether it's megastars like Hulk Hogan, Rock or Steve Austin in boom periods or "hold the fort" draws like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart or John Cena in the downtimes. People were coming to the arena to see Randy Orton. If not, they'd be sitting on their hands when he's doing his thing. He can appeal to the crowd, he's an improving worker, and he's got a good handle of what to say in the ring, even if he needs work on how to say it, unless he's been droning as part of his heel character.
Yeah, about that. It's funny that the WWE has taken great pains to keep him heel by throwing out every trick in the book - having him threaten to cancel WrestleMania, hiding behind mental illness (which is no joke, but to a wrestling crowd, it might as well be Heel 101), even stopping doing anything remotely emotive. Do you notice that he hasn't been posing on the turnbuckles anymore? The only gestures he's been allowed to do anymore are the ones that make him look like a homosexual snake... again, not the best posturing for a wrestling crowd. I've even noticed a drop-off in frequency for the RKO, well, I haven't been counting them, but it just feels like he sets up for the Punt way more than he sets up for (and the announcers really sell... the bigger key) the RKO.
Even if it's been the WWE's plan to make Orton their heel centerpiece for the coming months and maybe even years, you can't hold a guy down from his destiny forever. Either that, or the 'E is going to break Randy Orton forever. There's no denying that he's less emotive right now than he was before No Way Out. Some people think that it's "classic psychological heel". Honestly, I don't see it. When I think that, I think Kevin Sullivan or Jake Roberts, guys who plot and plan diabolically, who think of ways to get back at people OTHER THAN by sneak attacking them. And the one thing that they did do right for Orton's character - having him lay out Steph while Trips was cuffed to the ropes - it was too little, too late for that build.
I'd rather they not do more for Orton's heel persona though. I don't think he's got the chops to do it. Rather, I think he's better suited to play the face. I think he knows how to play to the crowd. He's athletic enough to be able to add dynamic elements to his moveset. In fact, I think his build almost demands that he run a high-energy offense rather than a resthold-based heel moveset.
It would also give the WWE a chance to experiment with other guys going heel. Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio are about the only two unheelable guys they have on their roster right now. Triple H and Batista are the logical choices, but they could also go with the smark wet dream of heeling John Cena. While I think that right now, heeling him would be a huge mistake, I admit that the thought is intriguing, and if the fans take to Orton as well as I think they would, then it could free up Cena to switch sides and freshen up a bit.
As it stands right now, we're going into a landmark RAW tonight with a main event that's been done to death so many times with two people in the same roles they've been in for the last two years. The WWE has been doing okay business, but their programming hasn't been hot enough to be able to "save" MyNetworkTV or pull big numbers on SciFi. It's very formulaic, and while people will tune into proven matchups and stars, they also want something new. Randy Orton as a face would have provided that, and given that all they'd have to do is let him play to the crowd, he could do that again. He may not be THE answer, but he could be an answer.
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