Views From The Turnbuckle: Should Randy Orton Be A Heel Or A Face?

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For a long time, the peak of Randy Orton's career was his feud with The Undertaker, from 2005. Orton is often credited with being the youngest ever world champion in WWE's history, defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in 2004, but after that brief reign, he found himself in a kind of no-mans land, and was straddling the tight rope between perennial main eventer, and sliding back down to the midcard. The feud with The Undertaker launched Orton back into the main event scene, where he would remain for the next ten years. Orton fully realized his potential both as a wrestler and has an entertainer during the feud, and while he has had a boatload of success since then, he never really stayed on the top of his game for very long, with the possible exception of his dominant title run from 2007-2008.

In 2010, WWE, seeking another top babyface to work underneath John Cena, decided to turn Randy Orton face. Orton got a fair amount of cheers as a babyface, and he got plenty of time and attention on Smackdown as a multiple-time World Champion. Despite his statistical success as a babyface, Orton never caught on as a babyface, and his value within WWE began to diminish. Some supremely talented workers, such as The Rock and CM Punk, were equally adept at playing a babyface or a heel role. However, most wrestlers are better off either working as a babyface or working as a heel, and Orton, not unlike plenty of legendary talent, from Ric Flair to Triple H, is better off working as a heel. As a babyface Orton's in ring work was still very good, his promo skills as a face where generic and he was unable to make any feud, with the exception of his work with Christian, really memorable. Orton was just so much better spitting out his words through clenched teeth at his opponents, nastily generating heat from the crowd. Watching Orton try and pander to the audience as some sort of Cena Lite was uncomfortable a majority of the time.

Ever since Orton joined The Authority and reclaimed his status as the elite heel in the company, he has been probably the most invaluable member of WWE's full-time roster. Despite all of his many accomplishments in WWE, 2014 has been the greatest year of Randy Orton's career. After starting off slow with Daniel Bryan, he main evented Wrestlemania in a match that received a great deal of critical acclaim. He then motored into a feud with The Shield and pretty much carried a flawed Evolution squad to a series of very strong matches. He then slid into a feud with Roman Reigns, and carried the limited Reigns to a good match. After a decent showing against Chris Jericho at Night of Champions, Orton did his best to get an okay match out of John Cena at Hell in a Cell, despite the match being thrown together at the last minute. In between that, Orton cut some scintillating promos, arguably the best of his career and really has established himself as WWE's MVP of 2014, despite a shaky win-loss record.

Orton is now poised to face off against The Authority's new golden boy, Seth Rollins, in a feud that shows great promise. Unlike his work with Reigns and Cena, Orton will be working with a fantastic wrestler, perhaps the best worker in the industry right now, so the matches should be exceptional. Orton is also once again bordering on becoming a defacto face, mainly because of his admirable work over the last season, and partly because he appears to be the only competent person in The Authority, a group that is rapidly looking more and more like a bunch of clueless stiffs than a bunch of scheming villains.

While Orton's work in recent works has been exceptional, WWE again faces the decision on whether to turn him face again. The crowd is getting behind him and he is feuding with a top heel, but as we have seen in the past, Orton is at his best when he is a cunning hothead, not as a shallow hero. His feud with Rollins will be good regardless, but once that finishes, Orton will most likely enter into a feud with a wrestler that he doesn't have as strong of a connection too, which will render him less impressive as WWE tries to come up for a reason for the two men to be feuding.

With both Bryan and Reigns on the shelf, making Orton a top babyface is certainly an intriguing option, but in the long run, WWE should look into the history of Orton as a babyface and look for aid elsewhere. If Orton isn't able to be a part of the Authority anymore, his best bet should be to try and be a true tweener. Orton can still get the cheers and work with heels, but he shouldn't ACT like he is wrestling for the fans. He should be as brazen and aloof as ever, but still challenge heels like Rollins, Rusev, Triple H, and others. Orton isn't on the Authority's side, nor is he on the fans side, he is on his own side. Orton the loner, Orton the snake, Orton the violent psychopath, is the best form of Randy Orton, and if WWE books things correctly they can get a hero and let the viper keep his fangs.