10 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Backlash 2018

7. Loser: Randy Orton

When Randy Orton is unmotivated or simply does not care about a match or storyline, it typically shows in his work.

Sunday was no different.

The Viper challenged Jeff Hardy in a match for the United States Championship that was disjointed and never once lived up to the quality of their previous matches. It was slow, disjointed and largely uninteresting. There was a decided lack of urgency on the part of the performers but it was Orton's rather lethargic offense, around which the match was built, that really doomed it to its eventual subpar quality.

It is disappointing given the roll Orton had been in at the start of the year. His work with Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode has seemingly awakened in Orton a desire to have good-to-great matches on a nightly basis.

Sunday, with Hardy, that desire appeared to have dissipated in favor of a sleepwalking performance that never clicked.

That he lost clean in the center of the ring with a sense of finality that makes a rematch unlikely probably did not help his motivation.

At all.