PILING ON~!: Todd Martin on the End of RAW Last Night

Full column, courtesy of F4WOnline

Todd Martin, who runs down each episode of RAW, explaining what he didn't like about the end segment. Same thing I said, only he said it much better:

I really liked the start of this segment. The story of the heels beating down the champion and weakening him for Orton to me was compelling storytelling. I didn’t like the twist of the cage lowering and Orton turning chicken heel at all.

To begin with, I don’t think Orton should be portrayed as a coward. It’s a trait that works well for many heels (like Chris Jericho for example), but I think it undermines Orton and diminishes his character.

Moreover, psychologically it’s just weird to have Orton so excited about getting this beaten up Cena only to become terrified when the cage lowered. Shouldn’t he be happy that he gets this terribly weakened champion all to himself? If he’s such a coward, why does he even want a title rematch in a cell match? Why would he even want this gauntlet match? It’s not unjustifiable psychologically, but to me it strains credibility within the context of the story.

Then there’s the fact that Orton just left through the cage door immediately after the cage lowered. What exactly is the point of this cage if he can leave so easily? It was like they brought the cage there to specifically make the point that you can escape, which seems to me the exact opposite feeling you want fans to have about the cage.

And finally, there’s the issue of the consumer perspective. What are we paying for? Cena’s already beaten up Orton, made him submit and taken his title. Orton has done nothing in the interim and apparently has no confidence in himself in this rematch. So what’s the point of the whole thing? It’s just not very good storytelling or build.

Moral of the story: The WWE has too many chickenshit heels. The writers need to learn how to write more than just "superman face" and "cowardly heel". It works for Jericho. It works for Edge. Hell, it even works for CM Punk in the right situation. It doesn't work for Randy Orton, The Miz or Jack Swagger.