Posted in: Mr. Tito TITO REPOST - Randy Orton's Growth as a Wrestler, Wrestlemania 27 Predictions, and more By Mr. Tito Dec 24, 2011 - 1:56:07 PM

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Mr. Tito, 12/24/11: This was a column I wrote during late March 2011... This was actually prepared for a LoPForums.com contest among our farm system columns. Someone was up against LordsofPain.net's Hustle, but dropped out. Hustle was without an opponent, so for fun, I figured "why not?".

I enjoyed this column... I gave a little bit of "insider info" on Randy Orton that I heard over the years while adding Wrestlemania 27 predictions (my classic What Should Happen/What Will Happen format). Plenty of Wrestlemania BLOG links to check out below and the "10 Things I Think" amuse me in hindsight.

Enjoy!

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The "Excellence in Column Writing" has returned for a Wrestlemania 27 special column. First and foremost, let me just suggest that I haven't been this excited about a Wrestlemania since Wrestlemania 21 where Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels was going to occur (and delivered huge!). I'm really enjoying the card and hype that the WWE Creative Staff has put together for the past month and they should be commended for taking the WWE's biggest show seriously when a few months ago, Wrestlemania 27 was actually looking bleak. Better booking (finally toughening up the Miz) and better talent added (Rock/Triple H/Undertaker/Steve Austin) certainly has made the difference. That, and WWE numbers from the latter half of 2010 were down and Vince McMahon has historically worked better under adversity. I'm sure Vince doesn't want to answer to the rest of the WWE Board of Directors and shareholders as to why Wrestemanias numbers were down. The recent moves by Vince and the Creative Staff, however, makes me believe that Wrestlemania 27 will not only surpass last year's Wrestlemania, but possibly spike above previous years' numbers as well. We'll see how having Rock/Triple H/Undertaker on RAW for the week before Wrestlemania 27 helps numbers or not.

But lost in the Triple H vs. Undertaker hype, the Rock's return and possible heat with John Cena, and Steve Austin's involvement with Jerry Lawler/Michael Cole is another match which will probably steal the show. It seems that CM Punk vs. Randy Orton is now flying under the radar as being 4th in the Wrestlemania "pecking order", even though it shouldn't be. CM Punk is a highly talented performer and Randy Orton is hitting his strides during the prime of his career. This match has serious potential to be that undercard match that "steals the show", much like Steamboat vs. Savage did at Wrestlemania 3, Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart did at Wrestlemania 8, both Owen/Bret and Shawn/Razor at Wrestlemania 10, Austin/Hart at Wrestlemania 13, the Ladder match from Wrestlemania 20, Michaels/Jericho at Wrestlemania 19, etc, have in the past. If the WWE were bold to make this the "hot opener" of Wrestlemania 27, this match will really explode.

Seeing Randy Orton hitting his wrestling peak during 2010 and now through 2011 has been great to see. Furthermore, the scene from last Monday of Randy getting attacked in front of his "tour bus" was touching in that you're seeing a glimpse of Randy Orton as a family man (his wife was there to comfort him after the CM Punk attack). Before I made my "comeback" during 2010 writing about wrestling on a regular basis as well as watching wrestling regularly, I wrote for LordsofPain.net from October 1998 to October 2006 and did quite well for myself during that period of time. For the last 4/5 years of that run, I was able to cover Randy from his WWE debut during 2002 through 2006. To see Randy Orton motivated as a professional wrestler to be the absolute best in the business as well as a family man is quite the 180 from what I was hearing from 2002-2006, and somewhat during 2007 when I was still hearing and reading things...

As a columnist during that time, and quite thankful for the popular vehicle known as LordsofPain.net, my column was read widely by the industry. Insomuch that I would have wrestlers and road agents e-mailing me either to criticize and/or eventually beginning to provide me with inside information on the business. During the mid-2000's, I was regularly in contact with a WWE midcarder and a road agent, who are both no longer working for the WWE right now. The midcarder seemed to have creative differences with management and was probably contacting myself, as well as other news entities, to probably help his work cause. The road agent, however, was tired of me railing on the WWE creative staff and was at first defensive of his creative job, but he soon grew tired of the McMahons and began to give me tips. Both could be hit or miss on their information, but I was mostly able to reconcile their information to what Dave Meltzer, Dave Scherer, Wade Keller, etc. were posting from their inside sources. It was good information to have to add layers to the current news stories, as often I was unsure of the validity of the midcarder/agent's tips and some of the information was sensitive as to give away their identity.

Both the one man both sources gave me a significant amount of feedback on was Randy Orton. In fact, the midcarder hated Randy's guts! The way he carried himself during 2003-2006, according to my sources, was quite problematic for the WWE locker room. As reported elsewhere, it seemed that Orton was befriended by Triple H. I was always told by several wrestlers in the industry that nobody knows how the friendship began, but most assume that Orton simply said and did the right things to impress the key members of WWE management (i.e. McMahons and Triple H, i.e. kissing ass). Hence, Orton's involvement with the stable Evolution, along with 2 other Triple H pals in Ric Flair and Batista. Orton was quite crafty with his friendship of Triple H, I was always told.

It seemed that during 2003-2006, Orton was feeling a sense of entitlement from his backstage connections and possibly from the push granted to him at a young age. When he won the World Title at SummerSlam 2004 versus Chris Benoit, he was only 24 years old and became the youngest wrestler to ever hold a World Title in WWE history. It seemed that this 2004 push came out of nowhere, too. As I've heard it from the midcarder and then confirmed by the road agent who attended several creative meetings, most non-McMahon creative staff members wanted to push Batista as the first Evolution member beyond Triple H to win the World Title. Hence, after Randy Orton's World Title reign fell apart, why Batista was soon pushed and eventually defeated Triple H at Wrestlemania 21 for the World Title. But the McMahons were very much in favor of the 2004 Randy Orton push, but soon had to eat lots of crow when the WWE fans rejected Orton as champion and as a face, and weren't buying "Randy Wear" gear. Thankfully, it took less than a month for the WWE to figure out that Randy wasn't ready at the time.

Orton, backstage, seemed to keep himself isolated from the rest of the wrestling population aside from his fellow Evolution members. But worst of all, Orton seemed to have a real disdain for anyone other than Triple H or Vince McMahon giving him advice on how to work a match. The road agent I spoke to said he never had to directly work with any of Randy's programs, but fellow agents did and they all hated working with Randy. They said talking with Randy was like a "deer in headlights", as he always seemed to have a dead stare look to him whenever someone would try to talk to him or he'd find a reason to blow off that agent. If you'll notice during Orton's early years, he was a horrible wrestler who didn't seem to improve with time other than his good bouts with Edge. It didn't appear that Orton was putting in the hard work to be great, but felt he was entitled to be great.

The midcarder always thought Orton was "on something", whether it was cosmetic or recreational, and suggested that this contributed to a bad attitude backstage for Orton. He was suspended during April 2006 for "unprofessional conduct" (according to the Chicago Sun-Times, reporting), with Orton reportedly admitting to smoking marijuana backstage during July 2006. Sports Illustrated during March 2007 posted an article about pro wrestlers and athletes buying illegal performance enhancing drugs through online pharmacies. Just from this report alone, Orton had 8 prescriptions filed for 6 different types of drugs (tanozolol, nandrolone, anastrozole, Clomiphene citrate, oxandrolone and testosterone) from March 2004 to August 2004. Obviously, at young age, a sense of entitlement, and reported issues with drug use, Orton was probably difficult to deal with back then compared to now. On the drug front, it might have taken the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit to create not only a wake-up call for wrestlers backstage, but to actually enforce testing to keep wrestlers clean (especially without a drug testing policy before Eddie's death, as the U.S. Congress found out upon their investigation after Benoit's death).

Where the midcarder really loathed Randy Orton was on his attitude, and not just on his sense of entitlement or how he acted beyond his inner circle of friends, i.e. the treatment of others. Orton either ignored you or didn't hesitate to openly disrespect you. As reported by LordsofPain.net during June 2005, former Diva Search contestant Rochelle Loewen complained of harassment by Orton, but possibly independent of Orton, I've heard that the entire first season of the Diva Search contest was "open season" for wrestlers raging in testosterone and it didn't mix well backstage. Some of the diva contestants probably understood the risks of working with a male dominated industry, such as Christy Hemme who seemed to really grasp the wrestling business (i.e. male dominated world) and even spoke out against Loewen's allegations. Whether or not Orton participated in any said harassment of the females is unknown officially, but who knows, maybe someday a National Enquirer style magazine will expose the wrestling business and its inner sexual harassment (if it's still occurring).

Randy Orton will just have turned 31 years old on Wrestlemania 27. The period of time in which I'm describing where he had issues was in his mid-20's. Just think of your own personal life during your 20's and if they weren't wild, immature, and problematic. Then, amplify that life by working in the cut-throat pro wrestling industry. Orton had built-in "legacy" advantages, thanks to his daddy, that other wrestlers didn't have the luxury of enjoying. He used the silver spoon to his advantage, and thus it allowed him to be lazy and careless in his mid-20's when he should have been taking his role with the WWE more seriously. Now, to be in his early 30's, he's taking it damn seriously and you're seeing results. Mistakes are made in the past and there are plenty of pro wrestlers who did worse and got away with it. At Wrestlemania 27, Orton has the opportunity to show the world what a professional wrestler he has become.

Wrestlemania 27 - What WILL Happen vs. What SHOULD Happen