Another third generation addition to the pro wrestling ranks of the WWE is Randy Orton. Son of “The Cowboy Bob Orton” and grandson of Bob Orton Sr., Randy has held the WWE World Heavyweight Championship title four times and is the youngest to do so in history at age 24. He’s held the WWE Championship twice, the Tag Team Championships twice, and the Intercontinental Championship title once. After watching Randy’s in ring performances over years he’s been with the WWE, I have noted that he has built an excellent persona for himself and can either play heel or hero with the best.
Starting his pro wrestling career in the year 2000, Randy Orton joined the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance-Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling (MMWA-SICW) in St. Louis. While there, he was trained by his father but only wrestled for a month before moving on to referee a few matches for World Organized Wrestling (WOW). In 2001, he signed a deal with the WWE and was sent to continue his training in Ohio Valley Wrestling circuit where he showcased against Rico Constantino and The Protoype, tag teamed with Beautiful Bobby Eaton, and on two separate occasions Randy held the OVW Hardcore Championship title.
On the April 25th 2002 edition of Smackdown, Randy Orton appeared winning his first match in the WWE against veteran Hardcore Holly. This enraged Holly, and in the following weeks, he DDT’ed Orton on the steel stage entrance ramp and sabotaged his matches. Orton kept on the hero role even getting an Undisputed Heavyweight Championship title match against Brock Lesnar who just dominated the matchup. In September of 2002, Randy was drafted to Raw, defeating Stevie Richards in his debut match but getting severely injured in the process. While healing from his injury, he appeared on many Raw segments gradually changing his persona for what was to come.
The February 3rd 2003 episode of Raw started showing segments of a newly formed group called Evolution consisting of Triple H, Ric Flair, Dave Batista, and Randy Orton. This group was like a pack of wolves, always making sure that they had each other’s backs in case things went sour during a match. Randy, after healing from his shoulder injury, re-joined the active Raw roster on May 26th when, after a two on one handicapped match pitting Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash against fellow Evolution member Triple H, he ran in with a mask on and attacked both Michaels and Nash. At Bad Blood, Orton interfered in a match between Flair and HBK resulting in Randy getting to main event Summerslam in an Elimination Chamber match against Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash, and Bill Goldberg, who, incidentally, eliminated him from the match.
One thing about Orton, he consistantly refines his character and before Unforgiven 2003 Randy started using his signature move, the RKO, and became known as “Legend Killer” claiming he was the future of wrestling. Randy spat in the face of legends such as King Harley Race and began a series of matches known as “Legend vs Legend Killer”. At Unforgiven he defeated Shawn Michaels, at Survivor Series he was the sole survivor for his team, at Armageddon he beat Rob Van Dam starting, what would be a seven month Intercontinental Championship reign. Orton then began a feud with Mick Foley; spitting in his face and throwing him down a flight of stairs.The war between Foley and Orton escalated at Backlash in a No Holds Barred-Falls Count Anywhere match. The match was particularly gruesome ending in Foley being RKO’ed twice (once on a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat) allowing Randy to retain his title. Orton continued his championship reign at Bad Blood 2004 in an atheletic matchup against Shelton Bejamin, again retaining the title. On July 11th at Vengence 2004, Randy Orton finally lost the WWE Intercontinental Championship to Edge.
Two weeks later, on the July 26th edition of Raw, Orton won a 20 Man Over The Top Battle Royal granting him number one contendership for the World Heavyweight Championship. At Summerslam 2004, Randy Orton soundly defeated Chris Benoit to become the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE recorded history at the age of 24. The following night, in feigned celebration, Evolution gathered in the ring putting Orton on Batista’s shoulders allowing him to bask for a few minutes before, uncerimoniously, dropping him on his head and viciously attacking him. His fellow Evolution members, especially Triple H, thought Orton had sidestepped years of hard work winning the title in a fluke. So, Triple H demanded Orton hand over the title and, in true fashion, Randy spit in his face which resulted in a brutal beatdown that ended with his face meeting the World Heavyweight Championship belt close up.
Following the beat down by Evolution, Orton retaliated by interfering in a matchup between Eugene and Triple H causing him to lose. On August 30th, Randy successfully defended his title against Kane by escaping a Steel Cage. Afterward, ex-Evolution members beat down Orton yet again. During Unforgiven 2004, Randy Orton lost his championship title to Triple H after several interferences by Evolution that included a chair shot to the head and the Pedigree on a steel chair. The very next week on Raw, Evolution was celebrating Triple H’s newly won title when Orton came out of a large cake to attack and humiliate the group. On the September 27th edition of Raw, Orton was defeated by Batista, after interference by Flair, eliminating his chances at a title shot against Triple H. A battle raged between Ric Flair and Randy Orton that culminated at Taboo Tuesday where Orton defeated Flair, via RKO, in a Steel Cage. Try as he might, at New Year’s Revolution and the Royal Rumble, Orton was unable to wrest the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H and Evolution disbanded completely shortly thereafter.
Following advice from Superstar Billy Graham to “go where no wrestler has gone before”, Randy Orton decided to challenge the 12 year winning streak of the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 21. Leading up to the event, Randy again refined his villainous persona by RKO’ing (then girlfriend) Stacy Keibler and leaving her lying in the ring. He constantly taunted the Undertaker and RKO’ed Jake “The Snake” Roberts after he advised Orton not to take the Undertaker lightly. At Wrestlemania, Orton lost by pinfall to the Undertaker even after interferences from his father. This match re-aggrievated his previous shoulder injury, and in the following Raw edition, after losing a World Heavyweight Championship title match to Batista, Orton was sidelined.
June 16th 2005, after being drafted to Smackdown during his absence, Randy Orton appeared once more to start feuding with the Undertaker. On two separate occasions he RKO’ed the Undertaker during matches with John Bradshaw Layfield and cost him a number one contendership. At Summerslam, Randy challenged the Undertaker to a Grudge match, finally defeating him, with help from his father.
The two went on playing mind games with each other until, at No Mercy, Randy and his father defeated the Undertaker in a Handicapped Casket match. After the match, they set the casket on fire with the Undertaker inside putting their rivalry temporarily on hold. Orton competed in a series of Raw vs Smackdown promotions and won the 2005 Survivor Series elimination match. Two days later, on a special edition of Smackdown, the Undertaker returned during an interpromotional match. Randy ran down to the ring, with father in tow, and RKO’ed him, hit him with a crow bar, threw him in the trunk of a low-rider, and crashed it into the Smackdown set causing an explosion. Bragging the following week that he’d killed the Undertaker, Orton was surprised by an annoucement that he would face Undertaker in Hell In A Cell at Armageddon. This match was probably the most brutal match Orton has ever participated in, ending with the Undertaker tombstone pile-driving him for the victory which ended the nine month long rivalry. After his battles with the Undertaker, Orton faced Benoit for approximately a month, substituting for King Booker, in a Best Of Seven Series. Orton won the US Championship for King Booker but was defeated two weeks later by Benoit in a No Holds Barred matchup.
Entering the 2006 Royal Rumble as number 30 on the card, Randy made the final two competitors before being eliminated by Rey Mysterio. Orton, troubled by his loss to Mysterio, started making tasteless comments (once again defining his role as a villain) about Mysterio’s deceased friend Eddie Guerrero and goaded him into putting up his Wrestlemania title shot at the next pay-per-view. At No Way Out, Randy beat Mysterio taking away his World Heavyweight Championship title shot at Wrestlemania 22. However, general manager of Smackdown Theodore Long, reinstated Mysterio to the match making Wrestlemania’s title match a Triple Threat. On April 2nd at Wrestlemania 22, in a battle against Kurt Angle and Mysterio, Randy Orton was pinned by Rey Mysterio who won the title ending their rivalry. Two days later, Randy was apparently put on a sixty day suspension for smoking marijuana backstage. Upon returning in June, Randy participated in a few matches with Kurt Angle, winning a Grudge match at Vengence. He began a short storyline with Hulk Hogan that lead to Summerslam 2006 where Hogan defeated Orton. At Unforgiven, precipitated by Carlito Cool commenting that Hogan’s hand being raised at Summerslam was “cool”, Randy pinned Carlito Cool in a Grudge match.
Edge, having problems with Triple H, convinced Randy to join him in a quest to destroy the newly formed D-Generation X. They called themselves Rated-RKO and on October 16th 2006 they tried to publicly humiliate DX by impersonating them in a hilarious parody. Rated-RKO managed to hand DX their first loss since re-forming at Cyber Sunday and capture the WWE Tag Team Championships from Roddy Piper and Ric Flair, but lost badly to Team DX in a historical “clean sweep” at Survivor Series. Undaunted by their defeat, Edge and Orton continued their assault on DX and anyone who chose to side with them. On the December 18th, 2006 airing of Raw, Rated-RKO beat Michaels and Triple H bloody with multiple conchairtos. This and repeated attacks on Ric Flair led to New Year’s Revolution which ended in DX being disqualified. The whole match was a catastophe, Triple H was severely injured and Michaels, realizing the severity of Helmsley’s injuries, went nutso with a steel chair beating both Edge and Orton bloody. With Triple H out of action, Rated-RKO focused their attentions on HBK, who started tagging with John Cena, and on January 29th Orton and Edge lost the WWE Tag Team Championships to Cena and Michaels. In the following months, Rated-RKO lost a series of matches to the new WWE Tag Team Champions eventually splitting up due to personal goals related to the WWE Championship.
Randy Orton renewed his Legend Killer status continuing to assault Michaels with blows to the head. At Judgement Day 2007, during a pre-match interview, Orton attacked, causing Michaels to suffer a concussion. As the match started, Randy declared himself the winner by forfeit, but Michaels, still in a daze, made it to the ring. Toward the end of the match, Michaels tried to perform Sweet Chin Music and collapsed allowing Orton the win. Afterward, the feud concluded as Randy assaulted Michaels beating him in the head repeatedly sidelining him. With Triple H and Michaels gone, the Legend Killer engaged himself in feuds with Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Sgt. Slaughter, and Dusty Rhodes sidelining them all with punts to the heads. By August, Orton began a charge for the WWE Championship held by John Cena. Weekly, he interfered in Cena’s matches and RKO’ed him (once through a chair on the concrete floor) several times. But at Summerslam, Randy could not beat Cena for the title. Frustrated and angered, the following evening on the August 27th 2007 edition of Raw, Orton demanded a rematch but was denied unless he could prove himself to Vince McMahon. So Randy attacked Cena and knocked him out, with the aid of King Booker, then proceeded to ring side, grabbed Cena’s father and pulled him over the barricade, he backed up and gave him a running kick to the head. At Unforgiven, two weeks later, the act would be reciprocated as John Cena snapped and held Orton in a ST-FU while his father punted Orton to the head. The very next day, the ante is upped; Randy assaulted and handcuffed Cena to a ring rope and RKO’ed his father while John rigorously worked to free himself. Lucky, Cody Rhodes provided a distraction to Ortons foul intentions and Cena freed himself chasing Randy from the ring. The whole feud ended prematurely when, on October 1rst, John suffered a pectoral muscle tear wrestling Mr. Kennedy. After the match, Orton RKO’ed him through an annoucer table and the WWE Championship title became vacant due to Cena’s injury.
WWE No Mercy 2007 was a strange night for Randy. Vince McMahon awarded the WWE Championship title to him at the beginning of the event, however, he lost the title in the opening match against Triple H. Triple H still had a match that evening against Umaga, but McMahon announced that it was now for the championship belt. Triple H defeated Umaga to retain the championship, but, Vince told Helmsley that Orton was exercising his re-match clause in the final match of the evening. As a result, in a Last Man Standing match, Randy Orton RKO’ed Triple H onto an announce table and ended up with the WWE Championship for the second time in one night. The next night on Raw, Shawn Michaels returned to the ring superkicking Randy and re-kindling the old feud. At Cyber Sunday Randy retained the title after Michaels was disqualified for a low blow. He retained the title at Survivor Series against HBK, Chris Jericho at Armageddon (due to disqualifaction), and Jeff Hardy at the Royal Rumble.
Meanwhile, John Cena had returned winning the Royal Rumble and the two re-engaged in their rivalry. Realizing that Randy Orton would not stop assaulting him, Cena cashed in his Wrestlemania title match to face him in February at No Way Out. Orton lost his match against Cena, but retained the title, by intentionally himself getting disqualified; slapping the official referee in the face. At Wrestlemania 24, Orton managed to retain his title, yet again pinning Cena (after a Pedigree by Triple H) in a Triple Threat match. Randy’s luck finally ran out in April 2008 at Backlash as he was pinned by Triple H in a Fatal Four Way Elimination match, ending a six month WWE Championship reign. For the next two months, Randy Orton tried, unsuccessfully, to re-gain the title from Helmsley. At One Night Stand 2008, Randy faced Triple H in a Last Man Standing match that resulted in Orton’s collarbone being broken and he was sidelined for approximately five months.
Making an unexpected return to Raw in September, but being unable to compete in the ring, Randy appeared criticizing all of Raws champions as “a joke”, and for the next two months, Orton worked on building his persona. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr had formed successful tag team (with Manu in tow) and looked up to Orton as a possible mentor. Initially rejecting Rhodes, DiBiase, and Manu as weak, Randy talked them into costing CM Punk his newly won World Heavyweight Championship title. On Orton’s return to Raw (November 3rd, 2008), he was defeated by CM Punk due to DiBiase’s interference, after which he sidelined Ted with a swift punt to the head. Randy decided to put together a group (similar to Evolution) with Rhodes, Sim Snuka, and Manu. In the weeks that followed, Orton decided Rhodes was the only one worth keeping and told Snuka and Manu to get lost. On the January 12th, 2009 edition of Raw, the duo appear with returning Ted DiBiase in what looked like a three on two beat down. DiBiase and Rhodes joined Orton turning the tables on the two.
The true “Legacy” began as Rhodes and DiBiase protected Randy while competing on a Raw event in a Six Man Over-The-Top-Rope Battle Royal as a preview to the Rumble. Catching flack for their actions from, acting general manager, Stephanie McMahon, Randy blew up on Stephanie and she fired him. The following week, Orton appealed to Vince who took his daughter’s side and as he was about to fire Orton, he snapped and RKO’ed McMahon followed up by a vicious kick to the head. In the mean time, Orton won the 2009 Rumble (with help from Rhodes and DiBiase) by sneaking up on and eliminating Triple H. The next day on Raw, Randy Orton (with four lawyers in tow) threatened to sue the WWE if they fired him, revealing he has a mental condition the WWE knew about called intermittent explosive disorder or IED. Later, that same night, Stephanie proclaimed she would not fire Orton, but would make him pay for his actions instead. Shane McMahon attacked Legacy over the next few weeks to little avail. Eventually, he was kicked in the head, and his sister was RKO’ed. This brought back one of the most personal rivalries in Randy Orton’s career when Triple H showed up to defend Stephanie McMahon, his wife and mother of his child. Continually being stalked by Triple H and his sledgehammer, Randy agreed to a match at Wrestlemania 25 if HHH agreed to no physical confrontations between the two before Wrestlemania. Breaking his own stipulation, Legacy attacked Triple H the following week. On the March 9th 2009 edition of Raw, Triple H forfeit a handicapped match against Rhodes and DiBiase to attack Orton at his residence, breaking the door open with a sledgehammer and throwing Randy Orton out his own front window before the police arrived and arrested Helmsley.
Things got more intense on March 23rd as Triple H faced Orton and DiBiase in a handicapped match. Rhodes joined the two, handcuffing Triple H to a ring rope and beating on him. Orton called Stephanie McMahon out to the ring to save her husband’s life and as she approached begging Orton to stop, she was surrounded, thrown in the ring, and RKO’ed viciously. Orton then taunted Triple H (still cuffed to the ring ropes) by kissing his wife in the lips and hitting him in the head with a sledgehammer. In April at Wrestlemania 25, Randy Orton lost his chance at the WWE Championship to Triple H suffering a brutal sledgehammer assault in the process. At Backlash Legacy won the World Heavyweight Championship title for Randy Orton against Triple H, Batista, and Shane McMahon in a Six Man Tag Team Match with stipulations that favored Legacy’s victory and left Triple H to be carried out on a stretcher. At Extreme Rules, Orton lost his the title to Batista in a Steel Cage but gained his vengence the next evening. Legacy assaulted Batista with steel chairs and broke his arm leaving him sidelined. On June 15th, 2009 Randy Orton became the World Heavyweight Champion for the fourth time competing against Triple H, John Cena, and the Big Show in a Fatal Four Way Match.
Most of Randy Orton’s pro wrestling career is frought with turmoil. In my opinion, he has an excellent presence and makes a good story either playing heel or hero. However, I believe the WWE needs to send him back to wrestling school because his in ring performances and title wins are usually not due to his wrestling ability. If Randy took the time he takes with his persona in the ring learning new moves, I have no doubt he would be considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time instead of the character the WWE is constantly pushing on us fans. He does not have to be nice to be talented.