Does Orton Deserve Better? (2015)

 

Last year around this same time of year, I talked about how Randy Orton was being pushed and whether he deserved better. A few weeks ago, I thought about writing the 2015 version of that. After seeing the WWE was still pushing Orton against The Wyatts, I decided not to. After seeing that he will be in the kickoff match, I decided to go through with it.

Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose will face Braun Strowman and Luke Harper in the Hell in a Cell kickoff match. In recent years, the kickoff match has involved people that were not being push well. A Wrestlemania pre-show match might sometimes feature something more important, but the pre-show for the smaller PPVs might feature something like El Torito vs. Hornswoggle.

Dean Ambrose is also in this match. Despite never holding a World Championship in the WWE, he has been in the main event of some WWE PPVs. He was in the main event of Hell in a Cell last year. This year, he's in the kickoff match. At least he is getting a match and has some sort of direction. There have been times when he was lost in the shuffle.

But for Randy Orton to be in this situation is something else. For the last decade, he has arguably been the #2 guy. It might have been CM Punk at one time, but he left. It could have been Daniel Bryan, but he has injury issues. Roman Reigns is being groomed to be a top guy. Orton has won multiple World titles. He has main-evented Wrestlemania. And he's now in the kickoff match of a minor PPV.

Is it really that insulting to be in the kickoff match? If the WWE had done a better job of mixing the guys used there and the feuds featured there, it wouldn't be. As I have said, a lot of the matches there have been unimportant. You would expect Neville, Barrett, Stardust, or Cesaro to be featured in the Hell in a Cell kickoff match. Even Sheamus, given that he has been pushed in a mediocre manner recently. But this Wyatts vs. Orton/Ambrose match seems too important for that.

I would say Orton does deserve to be featured better. Hopefully, this is not an indicator that the WWE will continue to give him mediocre treatment for any long period of time. He has gone through stretches of that. I don't think any of those instances have resulted in a kickoff match.

Who wins this match? They can go two ways. Either give the faces the win or continue to make Braun Strowman look strong. If the faces win, Luke Harper will likely be the one taking the pin. The WWE could use this match to make Orton look good and have him feud with Bray Wyatt next. If they want to keep Strowman strong, he can go over either face in this match to look impressive. But what are they building him up for? Given that this has been made a kickoff match, I am saying the faces win. One of those faces is Randy Orton, so that might make it easier to bet on the faces. Or will they have a top star lose in a kickoff match?