Although a 14-time heavyweight champion and one of the most popular superstars in sports entertainment history, Randy Orton isn’t receiving the respect he merits from the WWE’s executive leaders. WWE fans eagerly awaited his return from a severe back injury that caused him to miss action for over a year. In the competitive market for television ratings, WWE’s executive leadership seems to have adopted a creative plan for generating ratings that doesn’t include The Viper in a leading role.
Given that the company strategically chose to give fans more notice about Randy Orton’s return than CM Punk’s, WWE fans should’ve read the metaphorical writing on the wall: Orton wouldn’t be in the top storylines. Fans across the nation and globe enthusiastically received The Legend Killer’s return during Survivor Series 2023. However, WWE’s executive leaders decided to deemphasize Orton’s return by bringing back CM Punk on the same night and marketing his return noticeably more frequently and prominently than The Viper’s.
Randy Orton
WWE’s executive leadership is preparing to involve Randy Orton in likely at least two to three months of battles with Logan Paul, the current holder of the United States Championship. Although Paul makes for entertaining television, a wrestler of Orton’s caliber deserves far greater than two to three months of battles with a relatively new wrestler who is a metaphorical one-trick pony: a knockout punch.
What’s the ultimate goal of Logan Paul battling Randy Orton? For Orton to defeat Paul for the United States Championship? One must hope that’s not the end goal.
While I’m not diminishing the significance of the United States Championship, Orton is in the final stage of his professional wrestling career, and he should be involved in the WWE Universal and WWE World Heavyweight Championship storylines until he retires. Don’t place him in token positions in these storylines, either. He deserves to be a serious contender for inevitably becoming a 17-time WWE heavyweight champion before he retires.
Of course, Orton would need to win a WWE heavyweight championship three more times before he could accomplish this historic feat.
The Viper’s John Cena Problem
WWE’s leadership is so invested in marketing John Cena as the greatest wrestler in history that it’s preventing Orton from being seriously considered for passing Ric Flair and John Cena’s heavyweight championship records. The executive leaders are prisoners of the moment. They see how successful Cena is outside of the WWE and want to continue capitalizing on his celebrity status inside and outside the WWE.
While John Cena is nowhere near the Hollywood superstar The Rock is, he’s the more committed WWE superstar between him and The Rock. The Rock, of course, takes long absences from the WWE to make films and lead professional football leagues. Randy Orton doesn’t enjoy such Hollywood success.
Given that Orton lacks such Hollywood celebrity status, the WWE’s executive leaders don’t feel they can economically capitalize on him as they do with John Cena and The Rock.
Parting Thoughts
Even though WWE’s executive leaders undervalue Randy Orton, he will retire before permitting them to continue to treat him as a second-tier wrestler. As we know, he’s The Apex Predator. If WWE’s executive leaders are interested in more credible storylines, all those storylines must include Randy Orton as a legitimate contender for a heavyweight championship.
WWE’s writers will lose tremendous credibility if they don’t have Orton winning a heavyweight championship soon.
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About The Author
Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels is an accomplished scholar, writer, editor, columnist, journalist, and academic, including a writing instruction expert and researcher at Johns Hopkins University. He received his educational training at prestigious universities, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Daniels has twenty-four years of experience as a writing instructor at every level of education and as a professional writer.
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