I am another that thinks Orton had his best inring year last year. His matches with Christian especially were off the charts and it was one of the better feuds in WWE last year.
The problem with some of his feuds last year was that he started puting over guys but then in the end he finished with the win. Rhodes is the best example in my view, Cody looked positively awesome against Orton attacking him week after week getting the upper hand on him but then Orton won the final PPV match between them. In my opinion, not claiming it is a fact
, it would have been better if Cody went over. It would have moved him further up the card and I firmly believe that someone as over as Orton (and Cena) can lose every match for three months straight and they would still be over as a top guy.
If in 2012 he keeps up the inring quality that would be fantastic for WWE but I want to see him on the losing end of a few more feuds.