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Has any other top star had such a lackluster career like Orton?


rzombie1988

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I enjoyed it tbh, but I have a higher affinity for Nash than most. When he was putting in the effort, he was pretty solid, and he was putting in the effort his entire second WWE run. There's a SD match with Rock where you can tell he's trying so god damn hard to have the best match he possibly can. I'm not saying he's great or anything, but with the right opponents and proper motivation he could be pretty good.

 

Examples: All matches against Bret, the HBK IYH match, almost all of the first year or so of Outsiders tag matches in WCW, random shit around the spring of 1999 where he was suddenly working his ass off for 3-4 weeks.

 

I also think compared to the last like....idk, ten years or so, the 02-03 booking is worlds better, even with a lot of shitty talent (but also some of the best) and taking the Attitude Era shit to even more absurd extremes at times.

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Guys I'd take Orton over in a heartbeat:

 

Pedro Morales - fucking sucked and sucked hard for a long time.

 

Masa Chono - almost no redeeming features.

 

Jeff Hardy - at least Orton is a wrestler not an acrobat pretending to be a wrestler

 

I'd take Orton over most of those guys for the finish of the Seth Rollins match from WM31 alone.

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Personally I don't know if any of this has anything to do with Orton at all. He has been boring in recent years. But I think that has to do with the WWE being less edgy, less out there, so his chacter who was basically a criminal out of a Johnny Cash or Springsteen song had all of the personality taken away. He hasn't been involved in any angles recently that were as exciting as the angles he did back 10 years ago. He hasn't booted any old people in the head, he hasn't sexually assaulted anybody, he hasn't done anything that a dangerous, violent, crazy person would do. They even changed the lyrics of his theme music about 5 years ago, so that the lyrics are less violent. They took away everything that was interesting about him and that drew heat- the violent explosive temper, the arrogance, the complete lack of regard for consequences, the borderline criminality of his actions, etc. He was interesting because he was different, now he's not interesting because he's the same. I don't know if the matches haven't been as good or we just care less.

 

I think from about 2002 to 2010 ish he was great. Everything except for the Rated RKO stuff was gravy IMO. Then he wasn't doing anything for awhile. Then in 2013 he had that great run against Daniel Bryan which was fun, although it made no sense why he had beef with Daniel Bryan or why he would ever want anything to do with HHH, but it was fun. Then some 6 mans vs the Sheild. Since then not so much.

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Personally I don't know if any of this has anything to do with Orton at all. He has been boring in recent years. But I think that has to do with the WWE being less edgy, less out there, so his chacter who was basically a criminal out of a Johnny Cash or Springsteen song had all of the personality taken away. He hasn't been involved in any angles recently that were as exciting as the angles he did back 10 years ago. He hasn't booted any old people in the head, he hasn't sexually assaulted anybody, he hasn't done anything that a dangerous, violent, crazy person would do. They even changed the lyrics of his theme music about 5 years ago, so that the lyrics are less violent. They took away everything that was interesting about him and that drew heat- the violent explosive temper, the arrogance, the complete lack of regard for consequences, the borderline criminality of his actions, etc. He was interesting because he was different, now he's not interesting because he's the same. I don't know if the matches haven't been as good or we just care less.

 

I think from about 2002 to 2010 ish he was great. Everything except for the Rated RKO stuff was gravy IMO. Then he wasn't doing anything for awhile. Then in 2013 he had that great run against Daniel Bryan which was fun, although it made no sense why he had beef with Daniel Bryan or why he would ever want anything to do with HHH, but it was fun. Then some 6 mans vs the Sheild. Since then not so much.

That is a fair point. Anything that did or could have made him interesting has more or less been taken from him. In my opinion though at his best he flashed potential to be really good and really interesting, but rarely sustained that for any length of time. It is also telling that he hasn't evolved really at all. If he is really as good as he is billed to be he needed to evolve into something else when the WWE de-fanged him. Even the stuff with Wyatt - to me - felt like recycled, half assed "I'm crazy" Randy Orton stuff on his end. If anything the fact that he flashed brilliance in the past makes it all worse. He is boring almost in spite of himself, like he is working to stay as uninteresting as possible.

 

I just can't bring myself to care about him. Even when he was feuding with Dragon (who is my favorite wrestler and was the hottest thing since Austin at the time) it kind of felt like work to care about Randy Orton in that feud. And that is the problem. He has been put in great spots. He has been shown he is talented and can be interesting. But on the whole he remains largely forgettable to a large section of fans.

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