WWE: Will Randy Orton Put Wade Barrett's Career Over the Top?

The ongoing feud between Randy Orton and Wade Barrett seemingly came out of nowhere. 

One day, Orton was at the tail end of a long-running rivalry with Cody Rhodes, and Wade Barrett had just started his conquest known as the “Barrett Barrage.” Then, all of a sudden, Barrett was named the captain of the Survivor Series team that would face Team Orton, he squared off with Orton in a couple of singles matches and he even picked up a victory over Orton on SmackDown. 

Before we even knew it, the two were involved in a full-fledged rivalry. 

Oddly enough, though, this is not the first time we’ve seen a rivalry between Orton and Barrett. While both members of the Raw roster in 2010, Barrett challenged Orton for the WWE Championship on three separate occasions: At Bragging Rights, at Survivor Series and on an episode of Monday Night Raw. 

But Barrett was unsuccessful at winning the title in all three attempts, and that feud was more about John Cena’s unwilling participation in Barrett’s Nexus group than it was about Barrett’s quest for the WWE Championship. 

The tide has now changed, however, and whereas Barrett previously played second-fiddle in his feud with Orton, he’s now the one who gets to shine. 

It’s been a nice change for Barrett from his first feud with Orton—where the bareknuckle brawler was booked like a loser and never actually looked like he had a realistic shot at competing with Orton—because Orton is putting Barrett over in a big way. 

That’s sort of been the theme of 2011, as—at least to some extent—Orton has helped Christian, Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry all reach heights that they’d never reached before in their WWE careers. Orton’s feud with Christian led Captain Charisma to his first sustained main event run in the WWE, his feuds with Rhodes helped Rhodes get over as one of SmackDown’s top heels and his two consecutive clean pay-per-view losses to Henry made the World’s Strongest Man look like a legitimate monster. 

Now, it’s Barrett’s turn. 

Since moving over to SmackDown at the beginning of 2011, Barrett had done next to nothing on the blue brand. He had some pointless feuds with The Big Show and Ezekiel Jackson, and he was the leader of The Corre, which might have been one of the worst stables in WWE history. 

Barrett had become a relative afterthought in the WWE, that is until Orton came to his rescue. 

When Barrett was randomly inserted into the captain’s spot for the five-on-five match, it was pretty clear that big things were on the horizon for Barrett. However, it was Randy Orton who made sure that Barrett’s push would take him to the Promised Land. 

Barrett recently picked up two huge victories over Orton—he pinned Orton after hitting Wasteland at Survivor Series and beat Orton via rollup on a recent episode of SmackDown—and for the first time since Barrett led the debut of the Nexus last year, fans began to take him seriously as a legitimate main-event contender. 

He was no longer Wade Barrett, the SmackDown star whose talents get wasted as he wallows in mid-card hell. He was Wade Barrett, the SmackDown star who is undoubtedly headed for the World Heavyweight Championship. 

Could he have gotten there on his own? Absolutely. 

But did it help him tremendously when the creative team put him in a feud with Orton? You’re damn right it did. 

Like Orton or not, he’s fulfilled his veteran role better than any other WWE superstar in 2011. He’s managed to help no fewer than three other superstars get over while also looking strong in the process, and that’s really all you can ask the guy to do. 

In many ways, he’s been the WWE’s MVP this year. Just ask Rhodes, Christian or Henry if that’s the case. 

Oh yeah, in a couple of months, be sure to ask Barrett, too.