PARKS’S TAKE: Randy Orton shouldn’t be the heel against Cody Rhodes and it seems maybe WWE is realizing that and hedging themselves

In WWE’s infinite wisdom, they decided to turn Randy Orton heel and keep Cody Rhodes babyface heading into their WrestleMania showdown – in other words, the exact opposite scenario I’ve argued for both in my full-page PWTorch Newsletter column, as well as on the WKPWP Flagship podcast with Wade Keller. Predictably, the results have been poor over the first two weeks.

Orton’s ambush of Cody and official heel turn, bloodying the champ to end Smackdown, earned him cheers from a crowd thirsty to see a “happening.” In the follow-up last week, Orton castigated another babyface, Matt Cardona, delivering a brutal offensive to him as well. Again, fans supported Orton in this.

Now, WWE has hedged a little bit with Orton. They’ve made him appear conflicted a bit in what he’s doing, though in the end, he ultimately takes things too far from a physicality standpoint, so who knows yet whether his talk is just Orton’s character providing misdirection, or if he’s REALLY struggling with these urges.

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Clearly, though, Orton is positioned to be in the heel category, Cody the babyface. Maybe WWE tries to engineer a double turn at WrestleMania, but that would be whiplash for the Orton character, who just turned heel. If WWE’s goal here is to get Orton booed at WrestleMania and Cody cheered, I have a hard time seeing that coming to fruition. Orton’s intensity will win out (though Cody is likely to be portrayed as equally intense in the lead-up over the next few weeks, only from a babyface perspective) and the desire for Mania attendees to see a title change will likely trump how both men are portrayed heading into that big show.

WWE made a curious decision here, choosing not to turn Cody or even keep both men babyface. If they’re intent on Orton being booed at Mania, they really need to go away from the big attacks from Orton that invite “one more time” chants from the live audience, making them appear to be accepting and embracing of this new version of Orton instead of being disgusted by his actions.