10 Most Shocking Wrestling Betrayals

5. Orton Devolves

kevin owens chris jericho
WWE.com

At SummerSlam 2004, Randy Orton defeated Chris Benoit to capture the World Heavyweight Championship because WWE were still smarting following Brock Lesnar's departure. The company felt compelled - out of pure, unadulterated pettiness - to crown a new youngest-ever top-tier champion.

On RAW the next night, Orton defeated Benoit again. It seemed off that WWE booked this for the next night - there was an in-built pay-per-view rematch which booked itself - but the motivation soon became clear. Triple H, asserting his authority, turned on Randy Orton with an on-the-nose symbolic "thumbs down" gesture, and ordered Batista to flatten him with an electric chair drop.

The aftermath was shocking, but in a rather more pejorative sense. Orton retaliated to the betrayal with that classic babyface move of spitting in Triple H's face and running away from him. The two met at next month's Unforgiven pay-per-view, at which Triple H defeated him for the gold. It did follow copious interference from his former Evolution stablemates, but losing the title in his first defence just made Orton look weak.

It was peak Triple H. He didn't just have to beat Orton so soundly - he had to oversee him looking like a right tw*t as he did so.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!