Randy Orton, WWE.com
With all of the buzz surrounding the WWE Royal Rumble, Randy Orton winning felt like a disappointing surprise for the WWE Universe.
The WWE Royal Rumble is usually one of the most exciting matches on the WWE’s pay-per-view calendar. Fans had a lot of things to talk about that ranged from who would win and who would debut. But this year felt like a disappointing event that didn’t see anyone huge return or debut – well, at least there was Tye Dillinger.
Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble match was certainly unexpected. Not in the good way where fans are happy about the result. This is like expecting to get a brand new toy at Christmas morning and unwrapping what turns out to be a re-gifted old toy you lost interest the previous May.
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Despite being a long-tenured WWE veteran, Orton feels like an awkward choice to have win the Royal Rumble. Then again, the entire match felt awkward. That’s not to say the entire match was terrible.
While it was nice seeing Dillinger get a shot in one of the biggest pay-per-view events of the year. Fans got their fix with Goldberg delivering spears to multiple superstars and even eliminating Brock Lesnar with ease. But it all started to fall apart shortly after Roman Reigns came in at No. 30.
No Kurt Angle, no Samoa Joe and no one else surprising making a return or debut. True, it was an unexpected result to start the Road to WrestleMania. But it was disappointing because it feels like the WWE scrambled to do something no one was predicting. In an effort to shock everyone, they picked someone who WWE fans certainly didn’t like seeing win the match.
The following are the three main reasons why Randy Orton should not have won the 2017 WWE Royal Rumble main event.
3. Missed Opportunities with Talented Roster
This one goes without saying. The WWE roster has a lot of options with superstars who would benefit from winning the Royal Rumble. That was still the hope even with weeks or rumors that the WWE would consider someone like the Undertaker, Goldberg or Brock Lesnar winning the Royal Rumble match.
Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble feels like a bit of a letdown with all of the opportunities the WWE had of making a new superstar. It would have been nice to see someone called up from NXT to have a surprise win. The one superstar who was talked about a lot recently was Samoa Joe, who would have likely received a huge ovation from the crowd.
There was some hope that the WWE would have finally given Bray Wyatt the main event push that he has deserved for years now. It was teased for a moment before Roman Reigns ruined that moment just like many other since 2014. Wyatt became nothing more than a distraction that allowed the Viper to strike and win. Feels like it really should have been the other way around.
The WWE is supposed to start building stars for the future because stars like John Cena and Randy Orton are nearing the end of their careers. When the roster includes names like Sami Zayn, Big Cass and even Baron Corbin, there are so many better options to have win the Royal Rumble main event.
2. Randy Orton’s Legacy is Already Established
Going in line with how talented the WWE roster is at the moment, there are several superstars who could have been better choices for winning the Royal Rumble match. This is the kind of match that is designed to help launch a superstar into the main event picture. It has established a lot of legacies in the WWE through the 30 years the match has taken place.
This is supposed to be a new era of the WWE where someone new should have been given that main event opportunity at WrestleMania 33. Randy Orton was not in the conversation among prognosticators and wrestling experts. The reason is that he’s had his time and doesn’t need the push of winning the Royal Rumble match.
Orton already had a Royal Rumble victory in 2009; although that led to a loss to Triple H a few months later at WrestleMania XXV for the WWE Championship. Other than that, Orton has 12 separate world championships in the WWE between the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship. Orton is going to be a surefire WWE Hall of Fame inductee at some point when he’s hung up the boots.
Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble match feels like the biggest miss of the night by WWE officials.
1. Concerns with Main Event Opponent
There’s still a long time between now and WrestleMania 33. Based on that, who knows what the WWE is planning to do with Randy Orton’s title match. Different storyline options will be teased for several weeks and it might become clearer after the SmackDown Live exclusive Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
But let’s go through the list of potential main event opponents for Randy Orton. Let’s say that John Cena retains the WWE Championship. This would possibly set up a match between two WWE veterans that we have seen numerous times through the Ruthless Aggression era. It’s the kind of match that has been done a lot. This match is synonymous with that song that was once good at first but has been overplayed on the radio for the last 10 years.
If the WWE decides to have Cena lose the championship to Bray Wyatt at Elimination Chamber, it just means they are forcing a rivalry that isn’t going to feel natural. It’s okay to book Orton and Wyatt having a match. But their story doesn’t seem to have an avenue towards a match that will flow well with everything else that has happened.
The poor reception goes beyond the concerns over his opponent, the fact he didn’t need this win and the young stars who did need it. Overall, Randy Orton might have been one of the worst possible choices to win the WWE Royal Rumble match.
