Randy Orton

[EnviousStupid]

Something I think I'll always praise Orton for is even through the middling periods of his career, he's generally been tremendous in the micro-elements of wrestling. Things like footwork, positioning, nuances to his character work, the extra details in putting moves over, how he feeds into an opponent's offense - while they might not leave a memorable impression after all his matches, they're all present in his work and are the things that other wrestlers would absolutely appreciate more than fans. When I think about wrestlers who might've been as talented as Orton in these aspects, they're guys who I expect to have extremely high on a ballot come 2026 (Bockwinkel, Fujiwara, Hart, etc.)

That said, I can't imagine Orton landing anywhere close to those names, if at all, for very obvious reasons. One of the most frustrating people to consider, because as great as he has been, his potential was so much greater.

[Ma Stump Puller]

2 hours ago, EnviousStupid said:

Something I think I'll always praise Orton for is even through the middling periods of his career, he's generally been tremendous in the micro-elements of wrestling. Things like footwork, positioning, nuances to his character work, the extra details in putting moves over, how he feeds into an opponent's offense - while they might not leave a memorable impression after all his matches, they're all present in his work and are the things that other wrestlers would absolutely appreciate more than fans. When I think about wrestlers who might've been as talented as Orton in these aspects, they're guys who I expect to have extremely high on a ballot come 2026 (Bockwinkel, Fujiwara, Hart, etc.)

That said, I can't imagine Orton landing anywhere close to those names, if at all, for very obvious reasons. One of the most frustrating people to consider, because as great as he has been, his potential was so much greater.

That's why I think a lot of guys in the business (Flair, Jim Ross, Kofi Kingston) tend to say that Orton is such a great worker. He's not some workrate crazy spot machine but he's a clear master of the smaller things that tend to be neglected when actually going through matches but get noticed a ton by those who have been conditioned in the same manner. It's those fantastic fundamentals that allow him to work well with essentially anyone and everyone; I've seen forgettable and bad matches from Orton, but never because he was sloppy or bad in-ring, usually because he's either unmotivated or other reasons. That's something that you can only really say the same for very few other people.

 

 

 

 

[Embrodak]

Orton is a great wrestler, but between the repetitious WWE style and his own lack of motivation, he’s a mediocre great wrestler, if that makes any sense to say. He’s as good as anybody could possibly be at so many aspects of the craft, but the pieces so rarely come together into something greater than the sum of their parts.