wrestling / Columns

Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton: WrestleMania Bound

February 2, 2017 | Posted by Steve Cook

I was really happy when Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt started feuding with each other after SummerSlam 2016. A feud with two guys I hadn’t cared about in a long, long time would keep them in the same segments and I could watch other segments without worrying about having to see them. Add Kane to the mix, and there were three of WWE’s most overexposed talents that I had seen more than enough of for one lifetime in one segment of SmackDown that I could happily ignore while checking Twitter or the Preds game or whatever else was going on at the time.

Mind you, Bray Wyatt wasn’t always irrelevant to my interests. I saw him on NXT with Luke Harper & Erick Rowan. He was a tremendously compelling character. What he lacked in traditional Superstar appearance he more than made up for in charisma & speaking ability. His rap captivated the NXT audience, and his debut with Harper & Rowan in the middle of 2013 captivated the WWE audience. The Wyatt Family vs. The Shield was pure awesomeness.

Somewhere along the way, Bray lost his focus. He lost his mojo, his it factor if you will. Was it the John Cena feud? Maybe. That happens to a lot of guys. There was some ridiculousness with a demonic kid…the whole thing crossed the line from being cool to goofy. By the time Bray set the rest of his family free in September 2014 I’d stopped caring. 2015 for Bray was a bit of a blur. Undertaker? Ryback? Eh. Luke Harper randomly came back to Bray because reasons, as did Rowan eventually for the same reasons. Braun Strowman became a thing, and honestly he wasn’t really useful until he left the Family. By the time the brand split happened, Bray Wyatt was drifting in midcard oblivion with no hope in sight.
Randy Orton has been on the WWE main roster since his SmackDown debut match on April 25, 2002. Barring hiatuses due to injury, Wellness violations & movie shoots, Orton has been a consistent presence on WWE television longer than pretty much any Superstar currently working full-time. He’s done it all. He’s feuded with pretty much anybody that’s passed through WWE in the past fifteen years & made a name for themselves.
As competent as he is in the ring, and I’ll never deny that he is a talented performer, it got to the point a long time ago where I was sick & tired of seeing Randy Orton. It’s not that I thought he’s a bad wrestler, or a terrible speaker, or anything of the like. I’ve said in the past that Randy Orton & guys like him that have been in WWE forever would have benefitted from the territory system still being intact. They could move from area to area, work on top or near the top in pretty much any wrestling promotion in the country or across the world, and move around so often & appear in so many different situations that they would never get stale. People would never get tired of seeing them.

Instead, Randy Orton has been on national television for fifteen years in front of basically the same audience wrestling basically the same people. It’s been good for his bank account, but it’s been bad for his overall value to wrestling fans. Does he deserve to be a main event performer? Absolutely. He gets a great reaction most of the time, he’s good in the ring, he’s fine on the microphone, he’s everything you’d want from a main event performer. But whenever he appears in the main event scene, the fans revolt against it. Late 2013. Randy becomes the enforcer for the Authority’s agenda against Daniel Bryan. He does fine in the role. But when Bryan got switched out for the likes of Big Show & John Cena, the fans revolted. They didn’t want to see Orton in main events anymore. Been there, done that, bought the fifteen different viper-themed t-shirts that looked the same. After WrestleMania XXX Orton was cycled into the Evolution/Shield feud & eventually settled back into his usual role. He did a lot of stuff that I ignored, because it wasn’t all that important in the big picture and I was tired of Randy Orton. Then we flash forward to late 2016.

The Orton/Wyatt feud wasn’t something I had a lot of hope for when it started. Things went a little bit differently than I expected, though. Randy Orton decided that since he couldn’t beat the Wyatt Family, he would join them. Unlike the time Daniel Bryan joined the Wyatts and became their lapdog that dressed like them & did their bidding, Orton was a full-fledged member in good standing. He fit right in with Wyatt & Harper, although tension began to build between Harper & Orton. Harper was always Bray’s general, his top sidekick, so obviously he felt threated by Randy Orton, a man far more competent & more of a threat to Luke’s status as the second in command than the green, inexperienced Erick Rowan or Braun Strowman ever were. They fought it out and Orton emerged on top, gaining momentum towards the Royal Rumble match where they would all be entered.

That momentum led Randy Orton to his second Royal Rumble victory and the main event/WWE title match at WrestleMania. I honestly didn’t see it coming…at least until I noticed all the money coming in to the UK gambling sites on Orton. “Follow the money” is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard, and the money showed us that Orton was headed to Rumble supremacy. He now awaits the WWE Champion at WrestleMania.

Tuesday night was another successful night for Bray & Randy, as they scored a victory over current WWE Champion John Cena & their former ally Luke Harper. Luke still appears to be loyal to Bray, but is really mad at Randy for taking his spot. As a Luke Harper fan I hope he gets over this loyalty to Bray Wyatt and becomes his own man, because he’s a pretty awesome wrestler and I think people would get behind him if he would allow them to. That pop when he suddenly appeared in the ring next to Cena while Orton & Wyatt were facing him down was pretty nice.

In any event, it was Randy Orton getting the pin on John Cena Tuesday night with the RKO. Many of us were afraid we would have yet another Cena/Orton feud at a major PPV. Based on the fact SmackDown is running Cena vs. Orton next Tuesday night, I have to believe that they will not be facing off at WrestleMania.

Who will Randy Orton face, then?

Bray Wyatt.

It would be the logical conclusion to this whole situation. Bray Wyatt has been focused on WWE domination for quite some time, using his Family to further his cause. The Elimination Chamber is just the kind of diabolical structure that a man like him should thrive in. The craziness that will develop during that match will make him feel at home. At the end of the night when all is said and done, the whole world will be in Bray Wyatt’s hands.

Then, he’ll realize that he’ll have to defend that world against his partner in crime. And he’ll know full well that Randy Orton is just as ruthless & as bent on domination as he is.

That’s a WWE Title match worthy of WrestleMania.

I never thought I’d say that about these two guys four months ago, but here we are.