WWE News: Major Character Changes Coming For Randy Orton Soon
The truth is, Randy Orton has always been a more natural heel. He emerged into WWE and won the majority of his WWE World Championships as a heel. It’s not that he isn’t a solid face for WWE, but he’s just a better performer when he embraces that side of himself. Orton has floated around the midcard without direction more than once in his career, which is something that doesn’t happen to him when he’s the villain.
Randy Orton missed a great deal of 2016 to injury, but he returned towards the end of the summer. He had a match with Brock Lesnar at WWE Summerslam, was drafted to SmackDown in the WWE Draft, and then began to feud with Bray Wyatt. However, WWE creative pulled a swerve and Orton joined The Wyatt Family out of nowhere. His “alignment” seemed like a temporary run, but everyone has embraced it rather quickly.
In fact, The Viper becoming a member of The Wyatt Family has been great for everyone. Orton has gone on record to say that it’s given him a “new pep in his step.” It’s one of the most interesting things he’s done, and WWE officials have embraced it as well. At WWE TLC, Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Orton became the SmackDown Tag Team Champions, which is the first time the stable has won WWE Championship gold.
Eventually, Randy Orton is going to betray The Wyatts, and it’ll create a much more personal feud between The Eater of Worlds and The Viper than we saw a few months ago. Orton has been teasing that betrayal on live events, so the split could easily happen over the coming months and then we could see Orton vs. Wyatt at Wrestlemania 33. For now, WWE is running with Randy Orton as a member of The Wyatt Family.
Since Orton will be with The Wyatts for the foreseeable future, there are a few things the WWE Universe has to acknowledge when it comes to him embracing the role. Thus far, he hasn’t undergone a transformation of character on WWE programming to support him as a believable member of the stable. Randy Orton doesn’t need to grow a huge beard to be believable, but a change of gear or persona seems almost necessary for him.
Apparently, Randy Orton feels the same way, and there could be some major character changes coming for him on SmackDown over the next several months. Recently, Randy discussed the alignment with The Wyatt Family and mentioned that he’d like to change his gear to fit the stable’s unique look, but he’s not sure how to do that yet. He mentioned Baron Corbin’s look as a source of inspiration, but he will find his own look.
Along with a new look, Orton mentioned that he’d continue to tweak things as he goes along because it’s the creativity of the new heel turn that is keeping him intrigued. As Orton becomes more invested in The Wyatt Family, the character changes will come more organically rather than all at once, which is potentially the better way to play the angle out and give it a slow burn until the time is right for The Viper to break away.
During another interview, WWE’s Apex Predator mentioned that he’d like to continue wrestling for another decade if his body can hold up. On paper, another 10 years would likely make him a shoo-in to eventually break Ric Flair or John Cena’s WWE World title record down the line. Right now, it seems Randy Orton is embracing his new role, and his dynamic with The Wyatts will continue to evolve over the coming months.
[Featured Image by WWE]
