Where does Orton rank when it's all said and done for him?

[DanielsonTHAGOAT]

This is an interesting question because I do feel like Orton is one of the best wrestlers on the roster and he was the best wrestler on the roster during his run as a heel.

I feel like Orton could've been an all time great heel like Triple H but he didn't really have any groundbreaking feuds. Of course people will bring up his feud with Cena but Orton and Cena have absolutely no chemistry together. IMO, one of the worst feuds in WWE history and they keep on running with it till this day. Triple H had Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Angle, and The Rock during his time.

Orton did have great feuds in his career with the Undertaker, HHH, and more recently, Daniel Bryan. I think his gimmick and character isn't being utilized more. He is one of the best when it comes to in ring psychology and he can be gold at times.

Would you say that he'd be ranked on top of Cena for you? Where do you see Orton ranked when his career is all over?

[The Legend]

No I wouldn't rank him higher than Cena and truthfully, I'm not going to go to the length of ranking him in a specific spot. Just suffice to say that he's not in my top 10 all-time. Probably in the lower portion of my top 50.

[Messiah]

Not very high at all.

Creative ruined him. Randy Orton lacks that true character defining moment. You could argue it was his match vs Cactus Jack in 2004 but I think while that put him over the edge and legitimized him as a superstar, I wouldn't consider it a "defining" moment. There was so much potential there with how he began 2009 after he punted Vince and Stephanie, along with his Royal Rumble victory, but the WrestleMania 25 main event was a botch (looking back, it seems odd that Triple H was WWE Champion in the first place) and they followed it up with Orton vs Cena. Thankfully I stopped watching wrestling around this time but I think it is safe to say based off reviews that nobody cared at all about that rivalry.

It isn't as if every wrestler needs that kind of a moment but for someone who has been a main eventer for a long period of time, it is shocking Orton hasn't had one yet or none noteworthy. They seem to always flip-flop on what they want to do with him. For a long period of time, Orton was completely uninteresting. I have always enjoyed his ring work and consider him one of the best workers in wrestling as I think his old-school, methodical style is brilliant and different from a lot of the repetitive in-ring work we are beginning to see.

Orton has always just seemed like "that guy who main events a lot" and to no fault of his own in my opinion. But because of his severe lack of groundbreaking matches or feuds, I wouldn't bother to rank him at all as The Legend said.

[Daz]

Probably not as high as he should unfortunately.

He hasn't really had the people around him to have particularly memorable feuds. WWE's attempt to force Cena/Orton down our throats like the next Austin/Rock hasn't helped either and the fact they've have other something like ten PPV matches against one another in the last 5 or so years is beyond ridiculous. It's too much.

WWE haven't really added to the Main Event talent pool or rotated people in and out, so Orton's been facing the same 4-5 guys for years on end (How many times as he wrestled Sheamus? Christian? How many times in the last year has he wrestled Bryan?). Occasionally they'll throw a Kofi Kingston at him, but mostly he's just spinning his wheels, and has been for years now,

Orton's also been a victim of bad decision making. Losing major matches he should have won, primarily, Wrestlemania 25. Off the top of my head, I can't think of too many defining career moments for Orton, other than beating Benoit for the World Title at SummerSlam 04 ... and as we all know, that never happened.

As a performer though, he's excellent across the board and probably deserves to rank much higher than he ultimately will.

[VaderBomb]

He'd be somewhere between my top 200-250, close to those numbers. There are well over a hundred pro-wrestlers that are better.

[KaiserGlider]

He'd be somewhere between my top 200-250, close to those numbers. There are well over a hundred pro-wrestlers that are better.

I wanna see you make that top 250 list.

[Westcoastvibes]

He is up there, like stated before he never had that defining moment like rock/austin/hogan or others. I don't think that necessarily counts against him though. He is one of the best performers in his era and almost always delivers when he is asked to.

I would say he is in the top 25 in terms of top guys, just because he never had that holy shit moment that would have defined his career does not mean he is not one of the better ones

[Kyle]

Near the bottom end of my top 100. Agree with everything that has been said here.

[Hanley!]

Orton has not been nearly as successful as he realistically should have been. He was very good, very young. He was already a star in his mid 20s, which is rare enough for a wrestler. And since then he's only been improving in the ring. But they have consistently messed up in how they've booked Orton and that's really held him back.

For most of his career he's been playing a very generic character - usually the most one-dimensional heel on the roster. But every time they've really made an effort with his character, he's gotten over with the fans in a big way. His original run as the legend killer with Evolution, his run of putting wrestlers out of action in 2007, the beginning of Legacy when he kicked Vince McMahon in the head. Even the beginning of his face run in recent years. The problem is that whenever he's won over the fans, the company has eventually killed the angle.

And always for the same reasons actually - to prop up Triple H or John Cena. They turned Orton face far too soon after he won the title the first time, and then Triple H won it back off him instantly and he was off to a miserable start. His awesome run of violence in 2007 ended when he began feuding with Cena and he instantly reverted into chicken shit heel. Triple H beat him at Wrestlemania 25, to kill all his momentum after punting Vince (although that was already after Shane McMahon had been made to look far too competitive against him). And while Orton's recent face run started well, it became boring because he was never given a major storyline, probably to keep him from overshadowing Cena.

At this point people are bored of Orton and they're sick of seeing him in major matches (usually against the same few opponents) without him earning those top spots through his participation in interesting storylines or real character progression. Weirdly though, fans always seem prepared to get behind Orton as a character again as soon as the company actually shows real interest in him. When the company treats him as a star, we do too. When they treat him as a main event placeholder, none of us care. Unlike Cena, fans don't actually resent Orton. They want to like him. The bookers just don't make it easy.

He should have ended his career as one of the best ever being honest. But I think the ship has sailed on that one unfortunately. He'll maybe skate in somewhere above the 100 spot when all is said and done (hypothetically of course), but he could have ranked so much higher. There was a shit load of potential there.

Strangely enough, there was only one thing that should have held Orton back and that was his terrible attitude earlier in his career. If they had held him back because he was such a shithead backstage and to fans, that would have been understandable. But that's the one thing that apparently wasn't actually held against him. His depushes rarely if ever coincided with his bad behaviour.