I'm Just Sayin': A Dissenting View of Randy Orton's Championship Win Last Night

Pro wrestling fans rejoice!  Our prayers have been answered and our cries to the pro wrestling gods have not fallen upon deaf ears!

Randy Orton is our NEW WWE Heavyweight Champion!  The Age of Orton is upon us!

Is it too little too late?

Excuse me for not sharing the exact same amount of enthusiasm that most WWE fans have for Orton's win last night during the Six Pack Challenge that saw Chris Jericho, Edge, John Cena, Wade Barret, and Sheamus fall terribly short of their championship dreams.

This isn't saying that I don't enjoy Orton's "stone cold" demeanor or "stunning" antics, nor is this implying that his reign—and our hopes of a lengthy reign for him—aren't necessary and vital for the WWE and her fans at this point in the game.

Orton's win last night was a long time coming for a promotion that is suffering terribly from sagging pay-per-view buy rates and lackluster television ratings.  Orton's victory is indeed the breath of fresh air that we so desperately yearned and pleaded for.

However at this point, I find myself very unenthusiastic about his win. 

While most fans are currently running through the streets, proudly waving Orton's victory as their prized golden ticket into the WWE's magical universe of sugary PG sweetness, I find myself sitting in the bed just as disenfranchised as Charlie's grandparents.

So again I pose the question of the Age of Orton: is it too little, too late?

The ratings share for the past few episodes of WWE RAW—World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship show—have been embarrassingly low even by their own standards.

Personally speaking, at least for the past month I've found myself more interested in what happens on Thursday nights instead of gluing myself in front of a television or computer screen on Monday nights.  Mind you, I've been watching RAW ever since its very first episode.

In fact, I remember being pissed off when McMahon announced that RAW would be replacing my beloved Prime Time Wrestling.  Yes, Mr. Ashley Morris is that old.

The truth of the matter is that the creative direction of RAW for the past four weeks has not been one that would warrant me breaking my neck in order to watch the programming.  This says a lot about the product, as I've ALWAYS managed to catch RAW without digital cable and/or streaming internet feed.

Add to that fact the uninspired build to Night of Champions and the WWE has created a pink elephant in the room that is too large and obnoxiously loud to no notice.  At one point yesterday afternoon, I actually asked myself, "Hey, isn't there a WWE pay-per-view this evening?"

Most fans may not share this same experience, but let's really be honest with one another here.  There have only been two reasons why most fans have watched RAW for the past month: for Randy Orton and for Chris Jericho.

Rampant speculation about Jericho's status within the company has caused most fans to write off his presence in the company even without an official statement of his release or departure.  Basically, fans don't even consider Jericho to be a part of the show or company anymore.

Other than that, the Nexus feud has suffered from the noticeable absence of almost half the damn group.  In fact, the most intimidating WWE faction in recent times resembles Tough Enough more so now than when the men were competing against each other on NXT.

The tension between Bryan Danielson and The Miz seemingly reached its zenith last night, but the build between the two hovered in an ambiguous gray zone of indifference. 

Most fans spent so much time harping incessantly on their hatred of The Miz that the payoff last night was overshadowed by Orton's victory and their own personal disregard of the feud in the first place.  The ironic thing is, Danielson has won his first WWE Championship and fans have generally remained quiet about it all.

Weren't people saying he "deserved" to be a top star in the WWE?  So he's won his first belt, and nothing? 

What else does RAW have to offer?  Some will say that Edge has floundered on the show, but most won't come out and just say that he really hasn't performed at the same level he did before his injury and early return.

John Cena, the WWE's guaranteed cash cow, is so in need of pro wrestling relevance and a character change right now it's not even funny.  At this early point in his young WWE career, Sheamus is as equally uninspiring as Cena.

The short of this spiel is that RAW's landscape has been a mess for quite awhile, thus creating a perfect storm of events that created the ideal space for pulling the trigger on Orton's popularity.

Randy Orton has been set up as the literal savior of RAW and the WWE. 

In all of his greatness, however, I cannot see how he alone can resurrect RAW from the graveyard of apathy.

In this sense, we can liken RAW to the WWE Spinner Belt that Orton raised high above his head last night after vanquishing Sheamus in the Six Pack Challenge. 

The Spinner Belt represents an era of the WWE that is no longer inspiring, exciting, or remotely entertaining to a growing number of fans.  In contrast, Randy Orton represents the dawn of a new vicious, serpent-like anti-hero that is cheered for his uncaring approach to those who attempt to poison his reign, openly or vicariously.

However, as long as Orton hoists that Spinner belt in the air, drapes it across his shoulder, or wraps it around his waist, he will continue to subconsciously promote an era of the company that we all despise to some unbearable degree.

RAW is the exact same way.  Orton is exactly what the company's flagship show needs at this point in time.  If his surroundings aren't primed and ready for his arrival, then the WWE is only placing a band-aid over a gaping wound that continues to profusely bleed money.

Orton on RAW is equivalent to putting new wine into old wineskin.  Orton is the single rose growing among a garden filled with weeds.

Randy Orton is the single bright spot in the midst of blinding darkness.

The problem with this is that one man cannot shoulder the burden of carrying a brand or a company, figuratively speaking.  It takes scores of individuals surrounding the man to make his relevance credible and engaging.

Stone Cold Steve Austin reached a fevered pitch when Mr. McMahon served as his adversary.

John Cena remained "legendary" as long as he overcame insurmountable odds.

Who is going to serve as our anti-hero's nemesis during the Age of Orton?  Sheamus?  Evan Bourne?  Matt Hardy?  Primo Colon?  Yoshi Tatsu?

I look forward to watching the maturation of the Age of Orton, but at this moment I cannot get enthused about it unless RAW is worth two red nickels again. 

If the creative direction continues to plod out the same stuff fans have been complaining about for quite awhile now, then Orton's reign will only serve as just another afterthought in the grand maniacal scheme of the WWE's PG Era.