wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Randy Orton Rivalries

July 12, 2015 | Posted by Mike Chin

I’ll be very interested to see what wrestling historians ultimately have to say about Randy Orton—a perennial main eventer over the last decade, a guy who many wrestlers call the smoothest worker in the business, and performer who so many critics call out for producing boring matches. It was this question that prompted me to consider the greatest moments in Randy Orton’s career to date, and, to that point, the feuds that have defined his time with WWE. This week, I’m counting down the top seven Randy Orton rivalries.

#7. Christian

Christian and Randy Orton were an unlikely pair of wrestlers to engage in a meaningful feud. Christian made his WWF debut about five years ahead of Orton and, for quite sometime, looked destined to be a career tag team and mid-card act. Orton, meanwhile, came in with a rocket strapped to him, a third generation blue chipper with the looks and natural athleticism to debut in the upper mid-card with every indication that he was destined for the main event. The two had a handful of interactions in those days, but Christian was generally booked as fodder or a stand in for bigger things on Orton’s horizon.

A program between these two seemed all the less likely when Christian defected to TNA. But whether it was Christian’s main event run on SpikeTV, or his maturation as a performer in the interim, when he returned to the WWE fold in 2009, he did advance up the card—first a main event face on the ECW brand, and then an upper card second to Edge on the Smackdown brand. Then Edge was forced to retire due to injury and Christian got an unexpected opportunity to face Alberto Del Rio for the vacated World Heavyweight Championship. Even more unexpected, he won, and for the first time in his WWE career, was a bona fide singles main event star.

The IWC rejoiced at the prospect of a lengthy run on top for Captain Charisma—until two days later (five days in TV broadcast time) Christian dropped the strap to Orton. Christian the character, reflected the reaction of the fans—quiet shock at the sudden loss. Orton fendeded him off in rematches—every encounter a four-star-ish piece of work that was among the best efforts WWE was putting on at the time. The result was Christian’s slow-burn heel turn, when he went from a justfifiably frustrated former champion to whiny heel. He even regained his championship briefly, on account of a wonky stipulation that the title could change hands via DQ.

Orton would come out on top, blowing off the feud in a very good no DQ bout at that year’s SummerSlam. This program would probably be stronger were it more balanced, rather than seeing Orton more or less dominate their span of matches. Just the same, it was a rare, true main event program for Christian and produced a string of very good bouts over the summer of 2011.

#6. Shawn Michaels

Most fans seem to agree that Orton’s best work has come as a heel and so it may be a little wonder that so much of his best work, particularly from an in-ring perspective, has come opposite Shawn Michaels who, aside from a very brief detour to feud with Hulk Hogan in the summer of 2005, worked exclusively as a face for the last eight years of his career.

It started with Evolution. Orton played the role of brash up and comer and incumbent main eventer, behind Triple H’s top heel gimmick. Michaels feuded on and off with Trips for most of Evolution’s initial run, and Orton became a rival by proxy—a placeholder in the build to HBK-HHH PPV matches and regular opposition in tag team bouts. Orton even picked up a one-on-one victory over Michaels, albeit with the help of Ric Flair, in their encounter at Unforgiven 2004.

Michaels and Orton also quietly built a pretty intriguing and specific rivalry via The Survivor Series. In both 2003 and 2005, they ended up the last man left from their opposing respective teams in main event level matches. The first time, Orton was a proxy for Eric Bischoff in his bid to become the sole GM of Raw, while HBK represented Steve Austin. The second time, Orton was a flagbearer for the Smackdown brand while Michaels represented Raw. In each case, Orton picked up the final pinfall victory in dramatic fashion, in each case pushing his star power and solidifying his place as a main event player.

Orton and Michaels would feud in earnest on opposite sides of a DX-Rated RKO war in which Orton and Edge arguably got the upper hand via Triple H going down to injury. They would reprise the feud again, finally getting a legit, focused, one-one program from the fall to winter of 2007.

Like he did with most opponents, Michaels helped shape some of the best pure matches of Orton’s wrestling career. Moreover, as a main eventer on the last legs of his in-ring career, Michaels put over Orton in a variety of ways, helping to cement his place at the top of the card.

#5. Daniel Bryan

Plenty of folks dismissed Bryan-Orton because the ways in which it seemed to cut short or postpone Daniel Bryan’s establishment as “the guy” in WWE. The feud got off to a hot start at the end of SummerSlam 2013 when Bryan won an excellent, hard-fought world title match over John Cena, only for Triple H and Randy Orton to turn heel within seconds of each other and steal the strap off of Bryan via Money in the Bank.

The months to follow were a quagmire of Bryan chasing Orton to try to win back the title. He seemed to achieve that very feat at Night of Champions—beating Orton, only for The Authority to repeal that decision and vacate the title. Bryan and Orton would battle to a no contest at Battleground then seemingly bring the rivalry to a head in a Hell in a Cell bout the following month, in which guest referee Shawn Michaels facilitated Orton’s victory.

In theory, this all should have been for the good. The fans were red hot for Bryan, and Orton was gathering a stronger reaction than he had for years as The Authority’s chief in-ring representative. Fans grew frustrated, though, at WWE’s apparent reluctance to give Bryan a meaningful run with the WWE Championship, and with each passing month, and each schmozz finish, their dissatisfaction crystallized further.

Despite its limitations, this program still ranks this high on the countdown for two simple reasons. First, as much as the outcomes may have been frustrating, Bryan and Orton strung together a darn impressive string of in-ring confrontations (which continued in lower-profile Raw matches in the winter). Second, there’s the true culmination of the rivalry to date, when Bryan beat not only Orton, but also Batista in a triple threat to walk out of WrestleMania 30 with the strap, for one of the biggest feel-good moments WWE has produced in years.

#4. The Undertaker

The Undertaker had been a serious main event level character for nearly fifteen years when Orton was ready to challenge him. Left out in the cold when Batista usurped his spot as the top face on Raw, Orton switched directions out of the world title picture to going hunting for The Undertaker’s WrestleMania undefeated streak. WWE had really only started making a big deal out of the streak a few years earlier, and this was the first time I’d suggest that someone earnestly switched gears and went gunning for ‘Taker for the explicit purpose of being the first man to beat him at ‘Mania, with no other beef at stake. Along the way, Orton mercifully abandoned his first upper card face run and slipped into his more natural heel role, RKOing kayfabe girlfriend Stacey Keibler as a demonstration that he was ready to go to nefarious extremes to get the best of The Dead Man.

Of course, Orton was not able to topple ‘Taker at WrestleMania 21, but the result was one of the best streak matches, full of legit near falls that the crowd bought into because Orton was uniquely positioned as the type of young talent we could imagine ending the streak. Despite the loss, competing at that level with The Phenom probably did still elevate Orton’s stock. After a brief period out of action, Orton came back on the Smackdown brand to continue this feud with The Undertaker, at which point things got murkier. Orton beat ‘Taker at SummerSlam with interference from Bob Orton and then the two buried The Deadman in a casket match the next month. Despite the victories, Orton’s spot as a contender grew more tenuous at this point for how heavily he depended on his father to steal these wins. ‘Taker-Orton came to a head at Armaggedon that year to blow off their rivalry in a lukewarm Hell in a Cell match, in which The Phenom finally got the conclusive upper hand.

Competing with The Undertaker was a vote of confidence for Orton as a budding star. While the wins and losses between the two were more or less fifty-fifty, I’d argue that the rivalry would have done even much more for Orton’s career had his wins been cleaner, and not so defined by his father’s interference.

#3. John Cena

Ironically, there was a time when John Cena-Randy Orton could be described as a dream match. When the two men made the main roster, WWE kept them apart for a period of years, mostly on opposing brands. Still, you had to suspect that two young men so clearly bound for the main event would have a sustained feud at some point. They took a step toward feuding when John Cena filled in for injured Triple H to tag up with Shawn Michaels against Rated RKO.

Then, in the summer of 2007, it all began in earnest.

Orton challenged Cena for the world championship at SummerSlam 2007. After a heated build, Cena won a solid match. In the aftermath, Orton assaulted Cena’s father on Raw to further the program with a match that ended indecisively at Unforgiven. The feud looked to continue until Cena had to step out of the spotlight due to injury—putting his run atop WWE and this feud on hold. In the meantime, Orton established himself as champion.

Cena made a surprise return at the 2008 Royal Rumble to win his way straight back into the world title picture. After Orton intentionally got himself disqualified to retain against Cena at No Way Out, Cena and Triple H both got shots at Orton’s title at WrestleMania 24.

After over a year of not directly feuding, Cena and Orton would collide again in the summer and fall of 2009 with matches contested over the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, Breaking Point, and Hell in a Cell, before they blew off the feud in a falls count anywhere Iron Man Match at Bragging Rights. That finale tends to get dismissed by critics because they were so burned out on Cena and Orton dominating the main event at that stage, but I’ll contend that it’s an underrated creative gem of a match that’s worth revisiting.

Cena and Orton would meet now and again in the years to follow, only to properly feud again at the end of 2013 into early 2014, competing in a TLC match to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships, then having an underwhelming rematch at the Royal Rumble.

Yes, Cena-Orton was severely overdone, and in periods of time when the fans were longing to see guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan get more meaningful shots at the main event. Just the same, the rivalry did produce more than its share of very good matches, and cumulatively defined WWE for about a year of programming. That’s good enough for number three on this countdown.

#2. Mick Foley

There was quite arguably no feud more integral to making Randy Orton than his war with Mick Foley in 2004. Orton entered the tradition of men like The Rock, Triple H, and Edge (later on) who went toe to toe with the Hardcore Legend and earned instant credibility for not only participating in heated rivalries and having good matches with him, but also for demonstrating a hitherto unclear bloodthirst and willingness to absorb punishment that Foley tends to bring out in people.

Orton was in the thick of his Legend Killer gimmick when he and Foley crossed paths, brawling in the Royal Rumble match, and charting a course for a fascinating little cross-generational tag match at WrestleMania 20 in which Orton and Batista joined their grand-mentor Ric Flair, to square off against Attitude Era icons, Foley and The Rock. After a very good encounter, Orton stole the pin off of Foley that night. The following month, they’d truly blow off the rivalry at Backlash, in a brutal Hardcore Match that saw the use of barbed wire and, most memorably, Orton taking a bare-chested bump onto a mat covered in thumbtacks.

Orton-Foley only lasted a few months and didn’t have any real reprisals over the years to follow. Just the same, it may be the single best example of a part-time legend coming back to put over a budding star in such a way that pushed him all the way over the hump to main event status. Beating Mick Foley at WrestleMania and in a Hardcore bout elevated Orton to the top of the card, and he hasn’t really had to look back since.

#1. Triple H

The Triple H-Randy Orton rivalry has had peaks and valleys—points at which it cemented Orton’s place at the top of the card and points that seemed to shunt him back down; points when the feud produced great dramatic moments and points when it verged on tedium. Regardless, for the good that it did accomplish and for its sheer longevity, I can’t help placing this rivalry in the top spot on the list.

Orton-HHH was all but destined from early on in Orton’s career, when he was selected to join the Evolution faction. While Batista, too, would eventually defect from the stable, the Orton-HHH pairing in particular had all the makings of Bruno Sammartino-Larry Zbyszko, Chris Adams-Steve Austin mentor-pupil blood feud, with the only real question being whether Orton would turn face, or really dig his heels into the heel role to stab The Game in the back.

As it worked out, Orton would win his first world championship at SummerSlam 2004, only for Triple H to turn on him the next the night—violently booting him from the clubhouse and shortly thereafter relieving him of his world title. The move was logical enough—the betrayal itself offered an electric moment that WWE did not foreshadow enough to be predictable, and yet it was entirely consistent to Triple H’s character who was always looking out for number one. Moreover, after his run with Mick Foley and beating Chris Benoit clean, Orton was way over and starting to win the respect of the crowd. The trouble was, Orton became as vanilla as he could be in his new hero’s role. What looked to be a story of the chase, redemption, and becoming the new face of the company became Orton failing to beat The Game twice over and surrendering his presumptive WrestleMania challenger spot to the surging Batista.

So, the initial Orton-Triple H run through was a moderate success. They’d clash again in Fall 2007 when John Cena went down to injury and The Cerebral Assassin was inserted into the main event picture and swapped the title back and forth with Orton at No Mercy. Their rivalry became the most predicatble path for the WrestleMania 24 main event, only for Cena to resurface and turn things to a three-way feud. The Viper and The Game would clash more meaningfully a year later, in the build to WrestleMania 25, when Orton and his Legacy cronies targeted the McMahon family, building to an Orton-Triple H main event in Houston. The program would continue in the months to follow, with the men trading victories and the title.

Orton and Triple H stayed apart for a while, before realigning at SummerSlam 2013—both turning heel and launching The Authority—an alliance with an edge, for the well-documented rivalry and history of betrayal between these two. Sure enough, after over a year of woring together, and even temporarily reforming Evolution, Triple H’s new on-air protégé Seth Rollins would take out Orton, paving the way for Orton’s current face run in which he hasn’t directly feuded with Triple H, but there’s an implicit and unavoidable sense of rivalry based on their respective face-heel orientations and place on the card.

Orton-Triple H is one of those feuds that you can never count out WWE revisiting for as long as either man can compete in the ring, and quite possibly long after as Triple H will work as a de facto heel authority figure in perpetuity and Orton is well-established enough that I wouldn’t doubt him sticking around as a part-timer or returning legend after he steps away from full-time performance. Pardon the pun, but this is a rivalry that has evolved over time, and I have little doubt it will continue to do so.

Who would you want to see added to this list? Kofi Kingston? Chris Jericho? Rey Mysterio? Let us know in the comments section.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.