Here is the thing about Randy. He has a natural gift inside of that ring. He has that "it" factor that almost no matter what he does... he will draw attention to himself inside of that ring. He has the perfect look. Not too bulky but not too slim. He's built just right, lean, everything that you could want in the perfect wrestling body... look at Orton. He has speed and can keep a good pace in the ring. He can slow it down when needs be. He can take to the air and it would look just right. He can keep it on the ground and not look out of place. Randy Orton is a rare breed, an extremely rare breed of wrestler.
His range of emotions was bland at first but after obtaining the Viper persona at first... he had it mastered. He could just slowly turn towards you and just stare and it worked. It worked cause in a blink of an eye he would leave his feet and connect with an RKO and it'd be like... wow. But the thing in wrestling is... it is easier to be a heel than it is to be a face. He was able to really get noticed as a heel but they pushed the face Orton far too quickly and it flopped badly. Now he is doing the face thing and it hasn't completely connected but it is still starting to get there.
The thing with Orton... he just has to evolve the character more. It isn't that he is stale cause he still can put on performance of the night, performance of the month, even performance of the year when the match is right. The problem is his actions. The Viper persona is so attached to him, this whole Apex Predator thing is still super glued to him that he pretty much has to find a way to turn that into a positive character. Kinda like how Triple H had to change the Cerebral Assassin into a face gimmick. He had a sledge hammer and so that helped. Orton doesn't have a prop that is "his" and so he has to be identified by what he does in the ring and how he does it.
He doesn't have to smile more, kiss up, or anything like that. he just needs a ... lighter persona... I think is how I'd put it. Like right now his character is looking to become face but it still has so much heel attachments to it that it is weighing it down which is why the mic work is still a lil slow. He could talk normally, he could make his entrance a lil quicker. He can do the little things just right but he has to evolve those little things to fit his current character.
But yeah I'm definitely a fan of Orton. He is definitely the total package. Just needs some tweaking to evolve the character into the face that he is looking to be.
