Kari Williams, Alestle Reporter
by Kari Williams, Alestle Reporter
A couple weeks ago on RAW, John Cena chose Randy Orton as his ‘mystery tag team partner’ for a match against Batista and Jack Swagger. I know that Legacy is practically non-existent, but my initial reaction was still, “Uh…Orton and Cena? Teaming up? How is this possible?”
Legacy’s demise is an important part of the transition of Orton’s character, but to throw him in a match with the top babyface seems a little sudden. Maybe it’s WWE’s way of showing that Orton is on the verge of a turn, since it seems like he’s been teetering for the last few weeks or so. Obviously, the pairing was a hesitant one with an air of mistrust and tension, but the fact still remains—one of the best heels of this decade teamed with someone who is supposed to be (despite the Cena-haters) one of the top faces of this decade.
This goes without saying, but I am not a booker or storyline writer. But throwing a top heel and a top face together so soon seems like it could hurt Orton and his character’s direction. A similar situation occurred a few years ago when Orton was unceremoniously eliminated from Evolution. He left the group and did a complete 180, going from an up and coming heel to a face whose fire died out too quickly. WWE needs to prevent that from happening again, especially with the quality of talent they are dealing with in Orton.
Though it appears WWE is doing a better job this time around by creating a distrust when Orton and Cena tagged, I still see Orton’s character working better as a heel.
It’s not that he can’t pull of being a face, because with his talent, he could pretty much do anything and get over, but he just has the kind of personality where he’s so easy to hate that fans love to hate him.
Everybody, whether they’re wrestling fans or not, have someone or something—whether it’s a TV show character or a sports team—that they hate because it’s fun to do so. For example, fans one One Tree Hill love to hate Dan Scott because the big, evil man who ruins people’s lives. But without him, the show wouldn’t be the same. As much as fans would have liked it initially if Dan Scott was killed off, they would soon realize that they’re villain isn’t there to antagonize and create havoc.
The same thing goes for wrestling. If you take one of the best heels out of his element and have him cater to the fans, being the good guy and doing what’s right, people are going to resent that they’re evil was taken from them. Many people, myself included, use wrestling as an escape from the drama, pain and heartache of life, and as odd as it sounds, the bad guy has to stay in this fantasy world to keep things moving along, to keep us coming back to see who will try to knock him off of his high horse next.
One of the important things about wrestling is that the fans are kept happy. If fans love to hate Orton, why take that away from them? Orton can separate himself from Legacy, and because he is so good at what he does, he can still come out of the feud looking strong without a turn.
From my perspective, fans would hate him even more if he came out Legacy as an even cockier, more arrogant heel. So, Orton needs to stop teetering, and give the fans what they want.
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