Reality From Ringside #14
May 18, 2009
By: Doug Lackey of WrestleView.com
Reality: Who screwed who at Wrestlemania, Orton?
I have never been one for reading into interviews of professional wrestlers. I think it has something to do with the obscene amount of cynicism I have for journalists and the entertainers they interview for the sole purpose of promoting a product. I want news and information from refined correspondents, not commercials and advertisements from journalistic whores.
?My God, Doug!? you gasp in astonishment. ?Is it your time of the month again??
No, not yet.
I was so bored Friday night that I decided to read an insipid little interview conducted by Simon Rothstein of The Sun. You can find the fetid little piece of trite here: this link.
Before you read on through this week’s ?Reality?, I encourage you to read this interview. Don?t worry, I?ll give you time. Believe me, there aren?t any big words in it so it should not take you more than 5 minutes to read if you can at a third grade level, at least.
Done? Ok.
What I would like to do is sort of ?rehash? this interview but insert my own little commentary and follow-up questions into it. While I understand Randy Orton’s true nature for this interview when it comes to promoting the company he works for and it is now realized that Rothstein is just a fan of the product and would never have any intention of putting someone on the spot? I?m not like that. I have MANY questions for Mr. Orton.
You say in your interview that ?the older and more mature you?ve become in the business, the more responsibility you are able to carry in being champion and representing the company?. Does this mean that your three previous title reigns were mistakes made by the company in entrusting you with the title? What will you be doing that is so different from your previous reigns? I may not have the greatest of attention spans, but I?ll be damned if you?re still kicking people in the skull.
?I?ve had fans come up to me and beg: ?Please kick Triple H in the head.? He’s a huge babyface, probably the ultimate babyface. But no matter what the character is, there’s always going to be that smart group of people who want to see the guy on top shot down.?
Will this group of people still be smart when they hope the same thing happens to you five years from now? I honestly wonder if Orton still thinks he will be considered the consummate heel after that time has passed. Triple H probably thought he was with his great rivalries against Steve Austin and The Rock. As time passes throughout any career of any kind, respect is garnered. This respect knows no personality. It will happen with Chris Jericho, if it hasn?t already.
As many of you have read in previous weeks, I have labeled Wrestlemania 25 as ?The Silver Buzzkill.? A card loaded with great matches only to be marred by the main event of Randy Orton and Triple H. After reading this interview with Orton, it reignited the disappointment that had built inside me last month.
From here on, I would like to go through Orton’s response to a couple of questions posed to him by Rothstein, analyze them, and pose the follow-ups that should have been. It was Rothstein’s responsibility to bring these up but alas, he was just promoting a product and not digging deeper to find the real answers.
Question: ?Were you disappointed when your main event at Wrestlemania didn?t live up to the expectations of the fans??
Orton: ?This was a storyline where Triple H needed retribution. He needed to beat the living p*** out of me because of what I did. I handcuffed him and made him watch while I beat up his wife and then kissed her while she was unconscious. Then to top it off after I do that, I knock him out with a sledgehammer to the head. I kick his father-in-law in the skull and put him in the hospital, and do the same to his brother-in-law. I think when all that happens and then you have this match where he can?t be disqualified or he loses the title, you kind of screw yourself.?
No, you don?t. There is nothing saying that you two could not have gone all out. Do you not remember how you ended the match? The referee was knocked out, the hammer was grabbed, hit in the skull, pin, win. You mean to tell me you could not think of anything more creative than something that you could have done any Monday night on ?Raw??
And who is to say that you could not have done something before the bell rang? How about a melee up and down the gargantuan ramp? There is nothing barring you two from going totally ape-s*** on each other and bringing this drama to the ultimate climax. Unfortunately, Orton tries to excuse the mediocrity even further.
Orton: ?We were not able to do everything that the other guys were able to do. Matt and Jeff Hardy had a hardcore no-holds-barred match. They were able to use all the bells and whistles to beat the hell out of each other. Everyone was expecting Triple H and I to do the same, but we had rules that put a fence around everything we were able to do. We weren?t able to go extreme. If anything hurt us, it was that.?
Let me see if I can put his answer into context. The only way that Randy Orton and Triple H could have made this match a truly memorable and make it the ultimate climax to a truly dramatic and suspenseful storyline? they needed chairs, tables, and other accessories. You mean to tell me that an 11-time champion and the future of WWE? ?The Company Man? and ?The Future?? aren?t creative enough to come up with an effective climax without the use of combative accessories? You ?needed? hardcore rules to make this exciting?!
Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker didn?t have hardcore rules in their match and it is being considered as the greatest in Wrestlemania history! I cannot think of a Wrestlemania main event where hardcore rules weren?t just inherent, but were needed to produce a truly entertaining main event. You two are not Mick Foley? both of you are more athletic, more competent, and way more accomplished than that.
Did Rothstein bring up these questions? Of course not, he decided to side with Orton and stoke the flames of this inept justification.
Question: ?Did you try to talk Vince out of those rules or change the match in any way??
Simon? are you telling me that you think it is Vince McMahon’s fault that we got ?The Silver Buzzkill?? I will give Orton credit for squelching that theory?
Orton: ?No, because I was happy with the match. I really was.?
If you were so happy with the match and the so-called ?constraints? you were put in, then why were you giving excuses for your performance? I would think that if you truly thought your performance on the grandest stage of them all you would not need to justify it. All you had to say was that Vince had nothing to do with it or that you never even asked him. This question should never have been addressed but instead, Orton decides to answer it trying to make himself look good and make Vince out to be the creative genius he wishes he was? the man still hasn?t decided what he was going to have for lunch last Friday!
This is where responsibility should have been taken? wait; didn?t you just say that because of your maturity it would make you more responsible? Man? not exactly the best at this interview-thing are you, Randy?
Orton, you either believe that your main event was great or that it sucked. If I wanted to read double-talk, I would have read transcripts of United States politicians in Congress.
Orton: ?The crowd in the arena had seen three and a half hours of wrestling and, not only that, they had seen some very good wrestling. Shawn Michaels and Undertaker put on a hell of a performance, the Money in the Bank match was crazy and a lot of guys did some death-defying maneuvers. When you do that and then you have this match with two guys who can?t be outside of the ring for more than 10 seconds, you kinda? screw yourself. You?ve backed yourself into a corner where it’s going to be hard to outperform the matches that went before you. I think our storyline and what our match was all about deserved to be the main event match on Wrestlemania. But I think that the restraints and stipulations around the match made it harder on us than it should have been.?
If you and Triple H did not believe that you could outperform any of those previous matches, then why even try? Instead of asking Vince to lift restrictions, why didn?t you just ask him if you could be scrubbed from the show? Sounds like you had no faith in yourself or in your opponent’s talents, for that matter.
Try not to pin all of this on your fellow co-workers, Randy. There were plenty of other methods that could have been employed to make your match one of the greatest. My previous suggestion of fighting before the bell would have sufficed. Try something innovative, like possibly fighting throughout the entire event! The two of you just flailing on each other in between matches and then leading up to the actual contest at the end? how’s that? But no? those two do not involve the easy way out. No creativity? no faith in each other’s abilities? no chance of maintaining the excitement.
??I think this title run is going to be what makes Randy Orton.?
You?ve already been made, Randy. The important question is: Will this be the title run that renovates what Randy Orton destroyed at Wrestlemania?
Do you believe Randy Orton’s image is tarnished because of WM25? Or do you think nothing has changed and he is still ?The Future?? Moreover, do you really give a damn? Email me at Dougystyle79@yahoo.com.
Until next time, mouth-breathers!