Randy Orton Must Move to WWE Raw for SmackDown Live to Succeed

Randy Orton first debuted on SmackDown 15 years ago, longer than most of the roster have been signed with WWE, yet it feels like it has been much longer. The Apex Predator has been a major part of WWE since the day he stepped into the ring. Unfortunately, he has not grown much for years, becoming a stagnant presence on the roster.

No one should question Orton's importance for WWE as a proper foil to John Cena for years and taking his place atop the company when Cena was injured. However, his recent impact has been questionable at best.

Despite being considered a top option, main eventing for SmackDown at WrestleMania 33 and winning the WWE Championship, Orton has felt like the odd man out on this roster. He has been gifted spotlights that feel unearned, and it has hurt the SmackDown roster considerably.

WWE SmackDown has long been called the B-show of WWE. In fact, before SmackDown was moved to Tuesday and became live weekly, it had been years since the brand had remotely competed with Monday Night Raw. Now with its own unique roster and a live program weekly, the difference between the brands should be small at best.

Since the Superstar Shake-up in April though, Raw has been consistently stronger weekly than SmackDown. While the tag-team division carried by The New Day and The Usos has been a noticeable highlight, the other divisions feel considerably understaffed.

The main event scene especially should feel stronger than it is, but a failed experiment with Jinder Mahal as champion coupled with a lack of developed challengers has left few standing tall. Despite being the number two face on the roster, Orton has done nothing for months beyond surviving until the final two on Team SmackDown at Survivor Series.

By relying on Orton, SmackDown has followed his lead in becoming stagnant recently, and it will likely stay that way as long as Orton is on the roster. Because of loyalty to Orton, no one seems to be able to step up past him on the roster even with interesting new stars available, including Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode, who both were eliminated before Orton at Survivor Series in the same match.

SmackDown's original moniker was the Land of Opportunity, driven by the promise that everyone would get equal chances to succeed. This should have led to a plethora of young stars rising to the occasion, but, beyond Mahal, no stars have come from nowhere to take top roles. In fact, multiple performers have been shuffled away after getting over.

In the build to WrestleMania this year, Luke Harper got over massively with many rooting for him to be included in the WWE Championship match. Instead, after a loss to AJ Styles, he disappeared while Orton then defeated Styles and rendered weeks of build-up moot. Harper was then shuffled off before being repackaged in a tag team with Erick Rowan.

Recently, Orton took a significant loss to Nakamura, potentially propelling The Artist to the top of the card, but he lost to Mahal and has since returned to a position lower on the totem pole than Orton. No matter what anyone does, the status quo returns on SmackDown with Orton standing tall despite generating little excitement.

In that same time, Raw has been largely without veteran talent thanks to Brock Lesnar's infrequent appearances, and stars have emerged with Braun Strowman, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe all proving themselves as viable main-event stars. You could argue that Raw still needs more depth at the top as well, but at least the wrestlers getting opportunities are allowed to take advantage of them.

The only real answer to this problem is for Orton to switch brands. While Raw could use Orton without him outshining already established new talent, SmackDown has proven it can't. Until Orton has left SmackDown, the brand will never be able to live up to its own moniker and follow Raw's lead.

While, in kayfabe, Orton would only move to Raw in an impressive trade of talent, SmackDown does not even need Raw to send anyone back. It would be cool to see Balor or Joe dominate a new brand, but SmackDown has enough wrestlers to recoup the loss of Orton simply by elevating more talent.

Roode and Nakamura both can take on the number two babyface role on SmackDown while Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn can continue to be elevated, hopefully moving up to the main event rather than being stuck in the tag-team division where they are situated now. This would also force WWE to rely on underused talent like Rusev, Tye Dillinger and Sin Cara to fill out the brand.

While this situation can also be helped by Orton evolving and changing his character for the first time in years, the simplest answer feels like the best, especially with SmackDown struggling to get all its talent consistent airtime with only two hours available rather than the three given to Raw.

As good as Orton has been in the past, he is an anchor right now weighing down SmackDown. A trade to Raw would benefit WWE as a whole and finally allow SmackDown to once again be the Land of Opportunity.