WrestleMania 26: Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes

The Dissolution of Legacy Triple Threat
Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes

How: I think one of the guest hosts made the match or something.

Heat Check: The seeds for this angle actually reach all the way back to 2008 when Randy Orton began scouting for his new stable of second generation superstars. The running came down to four guys. He kept the white ones and kicked the brown ones to the curb (zomg racism?). One of the white ones, Ted DiBiase, joined the stable despite the fact that Randy Orton instigated an injury angle that allowed him to finish filming the cinematic masterpiece known as The Marine 2 punted him and put him on the shelf for a few months. They help Orton win the Royal Rumble in 2009. For their efforts, they're repaid with jobbing their eyes out to Triple H, Batista, Shane McMahon, hell, anything that moved and wasn't named Santino Marella (although at the time, Santino was Santina and actually had a much more credibility with the transvestism to boot... go figure). Cody Rhodes even got to get super-squashed in less than a minute twice, once to Trips and once to Batista.

After Orton's feud with Triple H segued into one with John Cena, the writers Orton and his minions (note, my wife knows them only as "minions", and she often calls Evan Bourne "minion" too because he and Cody look like doppelgangers to her) forgot they were affiliated, as Legacy moved on to feud with DX. Meanwhile, when Orton needed backup against Cena, he called on JeriShow more than he did his own lackeys.

Well, after the "final" meeting between Cena and Orton, and the rubber match between Legacy and DX, Legacy was all like "shit what do we do know? We know! Let's be Randy's henchmen again!" And so they were. They first reminded us of their role by buying Orton a stock car until *record scratch* Kofi Kingston destroyed it! Oh no!

So, Legacy settled back into their roles as lackeys, but they actually won matches this time. I guess this started them off on the notion that they were actually better than Orton at this point and they started planting seeds of dissention against each other. Orton told them to buzz off about that and not to get involved in any of his matches. Rhodes doesn't listen, he gets Orton DQ'ed twice, and then a third time, he fakes Orton out and helps DiBiase eliminate him at Elimination Chamber. This sets Orton off over the edge, and he goes on the warpath, although with not much success to date.

Analysis: As they've done with this stable all along, they've handed the build to this match so ham-handedly that Porky Pig comments about how ham-handedly they've handled it. The plan was that Ted DiBiase would come out of this as a megaface, because hey, heels don't star in major-release straight-to-DVD feature films. Well, that didn't happen. Orton was the one who got face pops, which proves what I've been saying all along - the fans have been wanting to cheer Orton for at least a year, if not longer. Honestly, if they really wanted to keep Orton heel, they shouldn't have programmed him against Sheamus, a guy the crowds really wanted to hate, but hey, I'm not the one in charge. They must know something I don't. Meh.

At the very least, they've given an out for themselves to finally turn Orton fan-favorite and see what kind of mileage he gives you on, say, Smackdown as a top face opposite CM Punk, Chris Jericho and Sheamus, post-draft of course. Meanwhile, whither Legacy? Well, who knows at this point. Whatever happens, I think they need to stay together as a heel tandem, maybe find some other lackeys and stay on the opposite brand Orton is on.

As for the match itself, triple threats are hit-or-miss, mostly miss. All three guys in the match are decent enough, although I'm not sure DiBiase or Rhodes have the experience to know what to do in a three-way. Orton does, but I'm skeptical at his ability to be a ring general. Although he's improved drastically now that he doesn't lean on chinlocks and other restholds anymore, I still think he has a ways to go before he can be counted amongst the Cena/Punk/Christian/Mysterio/Jericho/Danielson (how's that for an Elimination Chamber match, eh?) number of elite workers in the company. I guess we'll see.

Who Should Win: Orton. Right now, he's more ready to draw money as a face than either member of Legacy is to draw heat as a heel. As much of a trendy smark answer it is to say DiBiase should win, well, that'd be just stupid at this point. He needs to be rebuilt and dissociated from Orton for at least two years.

Who Will Win: Orton. They could have a surprise DiBiase win here, but I think Orton's getting the duke.

Photo Credit: WWE.com