That Was Then, Is This Too? 04.20.10: Randy Orton Face Turns

Welcome to yet another installment of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. Unfortunately we don’t have comments this week. This certainly does prove that less people care about indy wrestling, unlike the dozens of people that pile into the Wrestler of the Week comment section each week to regurgitate the Fire Ant and BxB Hulk jokes while proudly showing off their ignorance by referring to 6’3″, 280 lb Bison Smith as a vanilla midget jobber. Fortunately I somehow seem to be spared the wrath of the commenters each week, as their hatred is focused pretty much entirely on Bauer, Berman, Byers and Berenstein. There must be something about having a last name that starts with the letter B that just sets you people off.

I was one of the people who picked Jon Moxley as their top wrestler for the past week, and I feel that explained my reason for doing so well enough. The FIP championship, which has in the past been held and defended extensively by people like Homicide and Bryan Danielson, is a legitimate world title. Furthermore, through FIP’s connections with Dragon Gate and EVOLVE, the wrestler holding the title can almost certainly expect to see future bookings and future exposure in both America and Japan. Furthermore I did not just randomly vote for Moxley because someone else did. Those who actually pay attention will have noticed that I picked Moxley as one of my potential breakout stars of 2010 in the 2009 year end Buy or Sell special.

It seems that the Wrestler of the Week comment section has devolved into a race to see who can regurgitate the same old lame jokes about BxB Hulk and Fire Ant the fastest, and who can find the most creative way to condemn a writer whose name starts with a B to a painful death. Of course what these people don’t realize is how Wrestler of the Week works. Each writer is free to make five picks according to their personal standards, most of which are explained in the WotW supplemental column.

And before you start, I do watch most of the wrestlers I vote for, either through the internet or through DVDs. Of course I won’t be seeing Jon Moxley winning the FIP title for at least a few weeks, but I will see him win the belt eventually. I recently watched all of last year’s Super-J Cup through the miracle of Youtube. Before I sat down to write this column I watched Dragon Gate Infinity 171, which featured the opening round matches for their annual King of Gate tournament, the Dragon Gate equivalent of King of the Ring. Before the end of the week I’ll also have watched the Compilation Gate PPV, which featured Yamato finally dethroning Open the Dream Gate champion Naruki Doi, who was the highest ranked Japanese wrestler in the last year of Wrestler of the Week.

I don’t consider myself a WWE fan or a TNA fan or a puro fan or an indy fan. I consider myself a wrestling fan. I watch whatever I’m in the mood for. I recently did a tally for all the subjects of my past columns, and WWE is still firmly at the top of the list even though I regularly vote for Japanese or indy wrestlers. The Column of Honor, Buy or Sell and Into the Indies should be more than enough proof that the writers who vote for Japanese and indy wrestlers actually watch those promotions, rather than just voting for them to appear smart. Each week the comment section loses its collective minds over writers voting for wrestlers who they consider unimportant, but at the end of the year it wasn’t Masato Yoshino or Karl Anderson who topped the list. In fact, the top fifteen only featured two ROH wrestlers, with Eddie Edwards ranked #14 and Tyler Black ranked #15.

In the end, I guess you’re free to blast us for voting according to our own preferences if it helps you sleep at night. However, long before Chris Benoit was a star in America, he was a star in Japan as the Pegasus Kid. MVP spent most of his independent career in FIP as Antonio Bank$. Eddie Guerrero worked his way up through Mexico and ECW before becoming WWE champion. Steve Austin, Undertaker, Kane and Mick Foley all started out in front of crowds of less than 100 men. Of course not every independent wrestler will make it to their level, but to pretend that independent and Japanese wrestling don’t matter is moronic.

Rant over, it’s time for Banner 2.0!

For some reason I’ve always thought that a turn from heel to face would be much harder to book properly than a turn from face to heel. After all, we all have some sort of darkness inside, something that can be used to give a credible reason to explain why we’ve snapped. However, if a heel has to turn face, they will have to do so in a way that somehow atones for all their past evils. This is also the case with Randy Orton, who seems to be turning face even though he was the man that punted Vince McMahon in the head and delivered a DDT to a helpless Stephanie McMahon. Still, it seems that Orton has been on the verge of turning face for quite a while now. Of course part of that was simply because he was in the ring with John Cena, who always has part of the crowd booing him no matter what he does. However, Orton’s current face turn didn’t truly start building momentum until the start of this year, when dissension started to spread in his Legacy stable.

Orton had taken Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase under his wings nearly a year and a half ago. Orton, who was still recovering from an injury, had appeared on RAW to express his displeasure at the red band’s current batch of champions, and the tag team champions took exception to that. Over the next few weeks they did everything they could to gain Orton’s respect, and eventually Orton agreed to take them under his wing. The cocky third generation superstar proved the perfect mentor, and for the next year they were at his side whenever he needed him, constantly interfering in Orton’s matches and beating down his opponents.

In the beginning of 2010 however, cracks began to show. At the Royal Rumble, Orton failed in his attempt to win the WWE championship from Sheamus when he was disqualified because of Cody Rhodes’ interference. Orton assaulted his pupils after the match, which was nothing new, but something definitely seemed to have changed. Orton’s next chance at the WWE championship was in the RAW Elimination Chamber match on the PPV with the same title, and he seemed to be going into the match holding an advantage over the rest of the contenders, since Legacy stablemate Ted DiBiase had also qualified. Things seemed to work out as planned for a while, as DiBiase and Orton worked together, but when Cody Rhodes introduced a steel pipe into the match from the outside, DiBiase ended up corking his mentor with it to eliminate him from the match.

Even though Orton seemed to play it cool, even praising his pupils for displaying the same treacherous qualities that had made him famous, he ended up turning on them in a six man tag match, laying them both out and walking off. Legacy would try to repay the favour next week, but failed in their attempt. They would get a pinfall victory over Orton in a handicap match, but at WrestleMania XXVI it was the viper who stood tall over his former star pupils. Orton has gone on a tremendous streak since WrestleMania. He successfully teamed with former rival John Cena, pinned newly crowned world heavyweight champion Jack Swagger and beat former Evolution stablemate Batista by disqualification.

The repeated success against Jack Swagger and the apparent stalemate between Edge and Chris Jericho has resulted in Orton being appointed the number one contender for Swagger’s world heavyweight championship, and the two will meet in an Extreme Rules match at the PPV of the same name. They seem to be doing things exactly the other way around this time, as the last time Orton turned face it wasn’t until after he won the world heavyweight title…

That Was Then…

Orton’s initial run in WWE didn’t actually pick up steam until he was picked up by Triple H’s newly formed Evolution stable, which sought to bring together the past, present and future of professional wrestling in one dominant stable. Where Batista was mainly brought in as the muscle of the group, Randy Orton was the golden child, the third generation star. With Triple H focusing on the world heavyweight championship and Batista and Flair teaming for the World Tag Team championships, Orton was left free to start a singles career of his own, which resulted in a seven month reign and Intercontinental champion.

It was during his run as Intercontinental championship that Orton truly began to establish himself as the legend killer. He started a feud with hardcore legend Mick Foley, and he went through a hell of barbed wire and thumb tacks to retain his title against him. Even with the help of his old rival and tag team partner The Rock, who made a one time only return, Foley was unable to beat Orton, who teamed with fellow Evolution members Ric Flair and Batista to face the Rock and Sock Connection at WrestleMania XX.

Orton would eventually lose his Intercontinental championship to Edge, but it only served to move him on to the world heavyweight title picture. On July 25th, 2004, Orton won a twenty man battle royal to become the new number one contender for Chris Benoit’s World Heavyweight Championship, last eliminating Chris Jericho. The two men would meet at that year’s SummerSlam PPV, and Orton beat Benoit in a shocking upset to become the youngest world champion in WWE history. Orton was genuinely moved by his big victory, and was congratulated afterwards by Benoit, who congratulated him on showing that he could be a man.

Triple H and the rest of Evolution weren’t as amused however. The following night on RAW they hosted a celebration for Orton, only to turn on him and beat him down. When Triple H demanded that Orton hand over the title, Orton responded by spitting Triple H in the face. The break with Evolution firmly established Orton as a face, but Triple H would win “his” world heavyweight championship from Orton just a month later at Unforgiven. Orton would continue to feud with Triple H and Evolution all the way to the 2005 Royal Rumble, but would never manage to recapture the world heavyweight championship.

Orton’s face run ended abruptly. On February 28th, 2005, he announced his intentions to end Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania 21 following a challenge from Superstar Billy Graham to go where no wrestler had gone before. He spent the following month taunting Undertaker, becoming more and more agitated as the Dead Man stalked him. He truly snapped on March 21st, when he delivered an RKO to then-girlfriend Stacy Keibler because she doubted his ability to beat Undertaker. Orton’s face run had lasted just seven months, and he would spend the rest of 2005 feuding with Undertaker.

…Is This Too?

At this point it seems hard to think of Orton as any kind of babyface. Besides the previously mentioned assaults on the McMahon family, this is also the man who repeatedly mocked the death of Eddie Guerrero and who assaulted John Cena’s father at home. However, it seems that WWE is doing everything they can to give Orton’s face run as good a start as they can. Orton has gone from the midcard at WrestleMania XXVI straight back into the main event scene, challenging Jack Swagger for the world heavyweight championship.

There are some interesting parallels between Orton’s last face turn and this one. To dust off an old chestnut, the student has become the master. In his previous face turn, Orton gained the support of the fans by his traiterous mentor turning on him. This time around he is the mentor, and his face turn was the direct result of his pupils turning on him and him kicking them to the curb because of that. The relationship between Orton and Rhodes and DiBiase has been very interesting to watch develop, and has now come to its natural conclusion. Regardless of the outcome of the title match at Extreme Rules, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Orton get drafted to SmackDown to make the break complete and let all three men go their own way.

But what does worry me a little is how the title match at Extreme Rules will play out, since both men are at a point in their careers where they desperately need their momentum. If Orton beats Swagger, his Money in the Bank win will have basically meant nothing (although, as I discussed a few weeks ago, it certainly wouldn’t have to mean that his main event career is over). If Swagger beats Orton, Orton loses the momentum he has been building since WrestleMania, and could lose the crowd’s interest in seeing him as a main event babyface. If I had to make a prediction at this point, I would guess that Orton would win the title and get moved to SmackDown in the upcoming draft. Regardless of the outcome, I do hope that Orton gets a stronger run this time around, in stead of turning right back into his old heel self after just seven months. It seems that there are a lot of interesting possibilities for the freshly turned Orton, such as a feud with Chris Jericho, a face reunion of Rated RKO, and it would be a shame to see those opportunities go to waste.