Randy Orton's Road to Nowhere
Seth Rollins is the talk of WWE. 2015 has been his year, thanks to his title run and his work in the ring. His Shield days are far behind him as he has become the top heel in the company and life has likely never been better for the WWE world heavyweight champion.
Kevin Owens' rise to prominence in WWE this year has been a thing of beatuy, as many fans perhaps did not see it coming. Though he lost the feud with John Cena, he is now Intercontinental champion and there is arguably no Superstar to do more in a shorter amount of time and look better doing it.
Dean Ambrose has been fun to watch, Roman Reigns is improving all the time, Finn Balor is turning heads down in NXT; the top stories of WWE in 2015 go on and on. But one name not being mentioned is Randy Orton.
What exactly has happened to The Viper? It seems as though WWE is quick to use Orton when a storyline presents itself but the rest of the time, Randy is back to doing nothing yet again.
The guy can't even keep his hands busy unless he's wearing the top championship, it's as if he doesn't exist without the title. For that matter, when was the last time he wrestled for a belt other than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?
John Cena rebuilt the U.S. title from the ground up this year and has enjoyed the spotlight that goes along with it. Why has this not happened for Orton? How is a 12-time world champion not being used in any meaningful capacity right now on WWE programming?
Why is he still being booked against Sheamus in a feud that can best be described as going nowhere fast?
Some fans will point to his run in The Authority, when he was on top of the world. He had it all then; the top title, a top spot, all the TV time he could want and serious main event work all over the world. Orton was the guy and now he's just a guy.
But even when he was in that role, his presence was diminished by Triple H. Daniel Bryan's problems with The Authority involved Randy by association, nothing more. Orton wasn't holding Bryan down, Hunter was.
When Seth Rollins came on board, he immediately took the spotlight from Randy. Orton's eventual face turn led to a win over Seth at WrestleMania 31 but since then, it's been a whole lot of nothing for The Viper. The question is why.
Why is Orton continually plugged in to one storyline after another, only to take him back down to zero when the angle is over? This is not the case of a guy in between storylines. This is the case of a guy with no obvious direction in a company that basically just uses him whenever it sees fit.
Orton is not a young man anymore. All the previously mentioned names are newer faces, guys that are just now realizing their potential on the WWE stage. Randy was on a much higher level than them at one point but now it appears as though he's one of the boys fighting for something to do.
Some would argue Orton deserves no better. His attitude and overall personality off camera have perhaps not warranted any special treatment despite his time served in WWE or the work he's done to be one of the best. Whether or not that's true is unknown. But what is obvious is that WWE is in no hurry to do anything with Randy and it does not appear to be changing any time soon.
Orton has been such a force in WWE for so long that to see him in this spot now seems unimaginable. He's so far down that if creative were to write him off TV tomorrow, he would likely not even be missed. That is not an insult to him, but more of an indictment on a company that should do more for one of its veteran main event guys.
2015 is not over yet but for Randy Orton, it perhaps cannot end fast enough.
