I have taken it upon myself to defend Randy Orton from the vitriolic attacks from the same IWC who proclaimed him the face of the company just a year ago.
I will not delve in to his personal life. Generally I do not believe in writing about celebrities' personal lives.
But I will defend four much-maligned aspects of Randy Orton's WWE career.
1. Randy Orton's in-ring ability
2. Randy Orton's gimmick
3. Randy Orton's backstage problems
4. Randy Orton's lack of charisma/mic skills
These four supposed weaknesses of Orton are not entirely unique to him.
For example, John Cena is alleged to be a terrible wrestler.
However his match with CM Punk was renowned wrestling pundit Dave Meltzer's first 5 star match in the WWE since 1996. If anything this proves Cena can wrestle when he wants to.
Randy Orton is no different. When he is not limited to his chinlocks and his other moves of doom he can be great in the ring.
Orton's in-ring ability
Now I would like to discuss Randy Orton's supposedly awful in-ring abilities.
First of all he has always wrestled a slow style.
As a heel he methodically destroyed his opponents. As a face he still maintains his methodical wrestling style while taking on a typical face's moveset.
His methodical style is often mistaken for poor in-ring ability. It might be boring but Orton's Viper gimmick requires him to work a slow style.
It's like saying the Dallas Mavericks are a terrible basketball team because they slow the game down at times.
Orton's slow style is not caused by a lack of athleticism. Orton can perform a dropkick with ease. The RKO takes a lot of athletic ability to safely perform.
It is not his fault that he has five moves of doom. His case is similar to John Cena in that WWE is purposely limiting them to their five moves of doom.
Second of all he has had great matches with various match types.
He wrestled Mick Foley at Backlash 2004 in a hardcore match. He put on a great match with Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series back in 2007. Orton's WrestleMania match with Undertaker was an instant classic.
Critics of Orton might suggest he was only good as the Legend Killer.
Not true.
In his Viper gimmick he has had great matches with the likes of Chris Jericho, CM Punk, and Christian.
He even had an Ironman match with John Cena back in 2009.
It is true Orton's slow style can't be compatible with everyone's style. His matches with a powerhouse like a Mark Henry would be very boring to watch at times.
But give an opponent compatible to Orton's wrestling style (E.G. Christian) and then you can see Orton put on great matches.
Randy Orton evolved from his Legend Killer gimmick to the Viper gimmick overtime.
If you watch the video when he faced Shawn Michaels, Jim Ross referred to Randy Orton as the Viper. His mannerisms were increasingly becoming like an actual snake.
With that said to say Randy Orton can't wrestle is ignorant.
Which transitions into the next aspect of my defense.
Randy Orton's gimmick
Randy Orton's gimmick change from the "good" Legend Killer gimmick to the "bad" Viper gimmick saw several changes.
First off there was the theme song change from Burn in My Light to Voices.
The only thing consistent with the two gimmicks is his finishing move.
The RKO is the most exciting finishing move in the WWE. But the Viper added another element to make him even more dangerous.
The trademark punt to the skull truly makes him the sadistic Viper.
Orton's backstage problems
With Orton's in-ring prowess covered, now I will defend Orton's backstage problems.
There was an accusation's surrounding Orton's treatment of Rachel Loewen and Amy Weber. It appeared Orton sexually harassed the two WWE employees.
However those allegations were false according to Mark Jindrak, a WWE superstar at the time. Current TNA interviewer and former WWE employee Christy Hemme also thought Orton didn't do anything wrong.
Now let's move on to the trashing the hotel room rumor.
As the Miz would say, really?
Entertainers and celebrities are notorious for mistreating hotel rooms. Lots of things can happen since these entertainers are often on the road.
Randy Orton is no exception.
Moreover, Orton was never confirmed to have trashed the room.
Now we move on to the allegation Randy Orton had Ken Anderson (AKA Mr. Kennedy) fired.
Once again, that allegation was never proven to be true.
Anderson was fired for two reasons.
1. He was injury-prone.
2. He was noted to be sloppy in the ring.
It's a shame Anderson didn't make it big in the WWE. However Randy Orton did not run off Anderson. John Cena and Shawn Michaels also complained about Anderson's sloppy in-ring work.
Now with Ken Anderson's case squared away, Kofi Kingston is up next.
It is true Randy Orton yelled at Kingston towards the end of a match on Raw. Kofi did botch the finish of the match. I do blame Orton for being unprofessional about it.
But let's be perfectly honest; Kofi Kingston is not worthy of the main event.
Lack of Charisma/Mic Skills
This is what really inspired me to write this article.
Randy Orton does have charisma and mic skills; but not in a way you can see it.
As the Viper, Randy Orton must conform to his gimmick. Do you expect him to start cutting promos like the Rock?
Charisma is a tough term to define. Orton manages to draw people to him with his mannerisms and his evil grin. That is a loose definition of charisma.
As for the mic skills part Randy Orton was great on the mic as the Legend Killer.
He is still good on the mic. But Randy Orton the Viper must speak in a different tone than Randy Orton the Legend Killer.
Randy Orton the Viper must talk in a slow manner to compliment his in-ring style. He does not always talk slow either.
Is he the greatest talker of all-time? No.
But to say Randy Orton can't talk is not looking at the whole picture of Orton's career or his current gimmick.
Closing Thoughts
Yes I am a fan of the Viper. I grew tired of articles constantly attacking him for being the top dog on SmackDown.
Orton does have some positive things going for him.
He has a great family with a wife and a daughter back in St. Louis. He is very user-friendly on twitter. User-friendly meaning he takes the time to respond to questions.
To top off my argument, Shawn Michaels himself said in an interview with Bill Simmons of ESPN that Orton is the future face of the company.
Thanks for reading!
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/777769-wwes-apex-predator-an-awesome-analysis-and-defense-of-the-viper-randy-orton
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