Randy Orton recently celebrated 20 years in the WWE and his legendary career has been well-documented. While initially struggling due to an injury, Orton immediately shot up the card by being added to Triple H’s Evolution faction, eventually resulting in him winning the World Heavyweight Championship in 2004 and becoming the youngest man to ever hold one of WWE’s world titles. The following night he was kicked out of Evolution by a jealous Triple H. And while that betrayal is an iconic moment in both men’s careers, Orton’s babyface run that immediately followed fell flat and he wouldn’t regain momentum until turning heel again and focussing on ending The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak.ย
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Bruce Prichard recently reflected on Orton’s career on the Something to Wrestle podcast and admitted WWE’s decision to boot him from Evolution right after becoming champion was a mistake. He believes that if Orton had stayed with the group and remained heel a little while longer, fans would’ve been more inclined to accept him as a good guyย
“In hindsight, it was too soon,” Prichard said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). “I would’ve loved to have Randy have a run as the heel champion with Evolution behind him and continuing to help him stay champion for a while so that you build that up even more. Evolution’s in control with Randy Orton as the champion and then Evolution would have the argument that we made you champion, we kept you champion and now it’s time for you to do the right thing and let [Triple H] be the champion. Hindsight I wish we would’ve run with it a little bit longer instead of going right into Hunter and Randy and turning Randy. I think Randy still needed a little more time on the heel side for people to truly accept him as a babyface.”
Orton has spent most of the last year working as a laid-back babyface working alongside Riddle as RK-Bro. The pair are on their second reign as Raw Tag Team Champions and were initially booked for a title unification match with The Usos at WrestleMania Backlash this Sunday. However, that match has since been turned into a six-man tag team match now involving Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre with no titles on the line.
