{"id":42374,"date":"2017-05-15T12:59:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T17:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=42374"},"modified":"2017-05-15T12:59:45","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T17:59:45","slug":"editorial-randy-ortons-twitter-rant-unwittingly-makes-part-problem-verifies-hes-convincing-prick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/05\/15\/editorial-randy-ortons-twitter-rant-unwittingly-makes-part-problem-verifies-hes-convincing-prick\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL: Randy Orton\u2019s Twitter rant unwittingly makes him part of the problem and verifies why he&#8217;s such a convincing prick"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4076476403\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Randy Orton is a pretty bad babyface. He looks like a heel, has the moveset of a heel, talks like a heel, and he occasionally burns down the property of other wrestlers. He swaggers, he has that cockeyed arm thing, and has spent a lot time as a face at the top of the card when his character was ice cold. A lot of these comments aren\u2019t even criticisms; I rather like Orton as a heel. He stalls, he has hubris, and he comes off as a legitimate prick.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now he sees fit to lay waste to indy wrestling, which couldn\u2019t come off as more heelish. Orton was born into WWE and the door was open for him in a way that it isn\u2019t for others. He\u2019s only ever learned, and worked, one style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Too often, when a company is number one, they fall victim to the idea that they\u2019re doing everything right. After all, you can\u2019t readily compare the numbers of what they\u2019re doing to the numbers of what they\u2019d be doing with a different business model. It\u2019s lazy and poor business to become convinced that the status quo is simply the best approach. This is Orton\u2019s cardinal sin here, as he portrays the tired winner attitude of someone who didn\u2019t have to work as hard as another person, or even attempt to ever learn to do things another way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hellish thing about this situation is that Orton has made it undesirable for those who agree with him to speak up about it. It\u2019s true that psychology in wrestling is being lost, and that an entire re-education has had to take place because we spent too much time relying on spotfests. When I looked back at Royal Rumble 1988, I was treated to a long, excellent old-school match between Ricky Steamboat and Rick Rude where Steamboat worked an arm for damn near the entire match. It was lovely. I believed in the fictional world being presented, and although Steamboat could pull out high-flying moves as needed, he didn\u2019t create a fan numbness to them by overusing that part of the arsenal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was it: A likable face trying to overcome an oft-cheating heel with his brains as much as his brawn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s where Orton\u2019s rant becomes so tonedeaf. He spits out an egotistical rant that\u2019s equal parts childish and unnecessary; childish because it belittles fans for wanting something different from a wrestling show when they\u2019re consuming ten hours a week of first-run WWE wrestling, and unnecessary because WWE has such a huge monopoly on the market that only a Ted DiBiase-style heel would feel the need to point out how far above them they are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve long since had a \u201cSo what?\u201d attitude toward wrestlers on Twitter breaking kayfabe, but I genuinely hope that this rant starts a conversation about the damage that can be done to the product. Orton isn\u2019t just a babyface &#8211; he\u2019s the babyface World Champion that\u2019s supposed to be defending his title, company, and country against a (surprisingly believable) foreign menace in the main event of a show less than a week away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than turn his rage out at the world, Orton might be well-served to look inward. His theme music with its incredible opening wail elicits a great response, but his matches often play to silence thereafter. His 13th title reign that he\u2019s so proud of is every bit as dull as most of the others so far, particularly those during face runs.<\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1407715304\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Randy Orton had the respect for the product that he\u2019s trying to portray in the rant, he wouldn\u2019t have put the rant out there for all to see. Although at least now we know why he\u2019s such a believable prick.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/10\/guest-editorial-wwe-celebrate-diversity-nxts-current-roster-stellar-focal-point\/\">EDITORIAL: WWE should celebrate its diversity, and NXT\u2019s current roster is a stellar focal point<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>You can submit a Guest Editorial for consideration here: pwtorch@pwtorch.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3570982279\"><div id=\"pwtor-2503121554\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Randy Orton is a pretty bad babyface. He looks like a heel, has the moveset of a heel, talks like a heel, and he occasionally burns down the property of other wrestlers. He swaggers, he <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/05\/15\/editorial-randy-ortons-twitter-rant-unwittingly-makes-part-problem-verifies-hes-convincing-prick\/\" title=\"EDITORIAL: Randy Orton\u2019s Twitter rant unwittingly makes him part of the problem and verifies why he&#8217;s such a convincing prick\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,61,27],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-42374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-guesteditorials","category-specialists","tag-randy-orton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/OrtonRandyWK4_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42375,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42374\/revisions\/42375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}