As of late, it appears to me as if The Legacy has taken a lot of heat due to the ways in which the characters of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase are being impacted by Randy Orton's push. The opinion by some being that Randy Orton is holding them down while they could be doing much more on their own.
I respectfully disagree.
As a matter of fact, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase are better off then they ever have been and are becoming the beneficiaries of something more priceless than most people realize.
Credibility by association.
That is not to say that these two young men are not talented. It's not to say that they wouldn't otherwise have solid potential. My point being, what Randy Orton is doing for them is in reality, helping Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase far more than their physical support of Orton is helping him.
It's easy to sit back and watch a regular episode or Monday Night Raw and think that Randy Orton is taking advantage of the two men. Seeing them get beat down in Orton's defense apparently leaves some people with the questionable feeling that such character usage is holding them back while Randy Orton somehow reaps the benefits.
That however, couldn't be further from the truth.
You must understand, The Legacy is a heel-stable that functions just as it should. It is traditional for the heel-leader of the group to allow his underlings to take the brunt of the punishment in an effort to better protect himself. This was frequently seen being done my JBL towards his Cabinet, Edge with his Familia, and most certainly with Triple H and his Evolution.
Randy Orton is no less credible and no less capable of defending himself in the wake of Legacy's creation. He's simply playing the role of what a heel group-leader is supposed to do. In the same way the he would back down from a confrontation or attack only at opportune times during the days in which he was a singles competitor.
More importantly than any of this is the actual development of the entire stable. It appears as if many people are under the impression that The Legacy is either under-achieving and/or that Randy Orton is the only member to be reaping any benefits.
This too, is not the case.
The best example I could give would be the most obvious one, Evolution.
This Super-Stable was officially born on Feb. 3, 2003 on a segment of Raw in which Triple H officially introduced the group. Yet, both Randy Orton and Batista suffered legitimate injuries that same month and the group had to be put on hold.
Randy Orton recovered quicker than Batista and made his return on May 26, 2003 by attacking Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash (two men who Triple H had been feuding with). So let's consider this the more official birth of Evolution as it was after this point that the stable would remain in-tact (Batista returned on October 20th later that year).
From May of 2003 when Randy Orton returned to join the group, not a single member of the group (besides their leader Triple H) captured a single championship of any kind until Armageddon 2003 on Dec. 14.
Which means that it was almost seven months before anyone in the stable besides Triple H captured any gold. As a matter of fact, the majority of those months were centered around Triple H either retaining or gaining the World Heavyweight Championship.
On Dec. 1, 2008, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Manu attacked John Cena. The following week, Orton proclaimed that "The Legacy is born". The more official incarnation of The Legacy wouldn't be born until the return of Ted DiBiase almost a month later.
Yet, even if you consider Dec. 1 to be the actual begining of the stable's birth, it has only been about four and a half months since that point in time. It's only been about three months that the stable has been active in their current incarnation.
Now, I'm no mathematician but it appears to me that if one were to use Evolution as the blueprint, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase still have another three to four months before they would even get a taste of championship gold.
Let me ask you this, where was Evolution three to four months after it's creation?
The only event of note that didn't include Triple H would be that Randy Orton participated in the 2003 Summerslam Elimination Chamber match. Orton was actually pinned before Triple H was even released from his chamber. Orton's role in that match was solely to protect the group leaders' World Heavyweight Championship, not to have any chance of even attempting to win it on his own.
Triple H's instruction to Randy Orton earlier in the night during Summerslam 2003 was no different than Randy Orton's instructions to Rhodes and DiBiase prior to the Royal Rumble. Randy Orton was not to win the match and it wasn't even an option for anyone besides Triple H t walk out of that chamber as the World Heavyweight Champion.
As a matter of fact, Rhodes and DiBiase being two of the final four participants in the Rumble match was more of a push for them than Randy Orton getting pinned in the Elimination Chamber was for him.
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