Randy Orton is a fascinating professional wrestler, and he's still a few years away from his 40s despite being a vital cog in the WWE machine since 2002. The guy has greatness flowing through his veins, and as such, there were a lot of expectations for his future in the business when he first appeared on television.
As we fast forward to 2017, it would seem from an outsider’s perspective that Randy has lived up to his potential, but his many World Title reigns only serve to gloss over the truth. What is the truth, you ask? Well, essentially, The Viper has been a little bit dull over the last few years despite Vince’s best efforts to keep him relevant.
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Sure he's the WWE Champion right now, but that’s a belt he’s held more than a dozen times now, and it loses its meaning if you only give it to guys because they’re the safe option. Orton is one of the most talented wrestlers on the roster, and he can still bring a lot to the weekly product, but we need to start mixing things up.
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With that being said, here are five things that Randy Orton needs to change in WWE.
#1 His look/theme
Randy Orton may well be one of the most good-looking men in the business today, but that doesn’t mean we want his look to stay the same. If you look at the above shot of The Legend Killer with elbow pads (which are criminally underrated when it comes to attire) and new trunks, he looks like an entirely different guy.
Wearing the same old trunks with the same old bland colour scheme isn’t going to resonate with fans in this day in age, especially when your theme song is also one of the dullest in the entire company. Seriously, Voices is so painfully boring that it makes us want to change the channel the second it hits the speakers.
“Where you at Bray?!”
#2 Mic skills
Cutting the same promo again and again for the better part of five years isn’t going to help you get over with the crowd, and that’s just a fact. Unfortunately, Orton either doesn’t seem to have received this memo, or he just can’t be bothered to fight the higher-ups behind the scenes when it comes to the material he’s being provided with.
We’ve seen snippets of greatness during his latest feud with Bray Wyatt, but we only really get that passion from Randy once in a blue moon. It’s time for something different, starting off with altering the monotone nature of his voice. Either change it up or, and we mean this as a last resort, get the guy a mouthpiece.
Can we order one ‘bad guy Randy’ please?
#3 Alignment
Randy Orton as a babyface can only work for so long, especially when he commits arson and burns down Bray’s compound. He just feels like a true bad guy, and we got a sense of that with his turn back in mid-2013, but they never actually went all the way with it, and he devolved into being another lackey within The Authority.
Orton can get some great heat from the WWE Universe, and he’s still young enough to make it work convincingly at the top of the card. His act has switched from being relevant to oh so stale with just one RKO at WrestleMania, and they need to freshen him up again. There are certainly other ways to do it, but this one might be the most effective.
That bloody DDT.
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#4 In-ring work
In terms of pure wrestling quality, Randy Orton really is exceptional in the ring. Unfortunately, the repetitive nature of his move set over the years has worn the fans down to the point where they just can’t get into one of his matches anymore. Sure they’re exciting, but we can’t see that through the same old lather rinse repeat nature of the match structure.
Backbreaker, rope DDT, dropping his knee on his opponent’s head, snap scoop powerslam, RKO. They say Cena has the five moves of doom, but aside from the ones we just listed, nothing jumps off the page in terms of unique offence for Orton. Hell, you could even bring the punt back if they can convince Vince of its effectiveness.
This last one is more of an assumption.
#5 Backstage persona
If his last few years in the company are anything to go by, Randy Orton has started to transition from a cocky jerk to someone who just doesn’t really care. Now we can imagine that the first of those two personas isn’t easy to deal with, but having a guy who just goes out there and does everything by the book in terms of what the company wants him to do doesn’t make for entertaining television.
We understand that Randy has been around for a long time, but we’d just like to see him challenge the status quo a little bit. Again, this is just an assumption based on what we’ve seen during the recent stages of his tenure, but a lot of fans have this mindset, and we want to see that old fire come back.
It seemed like Bray might bring it out of him until the Mania match happened, so maybe it was the decision for Randy to win that killed things off. Who knows?
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