10 Most Shocking WWE WrestleMania Role Reversals
8. Triple H & Randy Orton - WrestleMania 25 & XXVI
Almost certainly by accident rather than design, it's comforting to think that Triple H and Randy Orton were punished for proffering such a pathetic main event in 2009 with midcard slots in 2010. Not least because, even with the gentle relegations, they still went over.
Randy Orton and Triple H's catastrophic show-closer failed in each of its stated aims. The blood feud build up was neglected in favour of a match that actively prohibited 'The Game' getting violent. Hunter himself went in as defending Champion rather than vengeful. 24 excruciating minutes warranted a finer finish than one that felt like the show was in a rush to get off the air. Orton - the man who had kicked his opponent's father and brother-in-law half to death and kissed his unconscious wife - was a minor inconvenience rather than a major threat.
Minor inconveniences were all that troubled either men 12 months removed from their topline stinker. At WrestleMania XXVI, Triple H breezed past Sheamus whilst Orton despatched his former Legacy interns Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. Undertaker and Shawn Michaels - the very men Hunter and Randy couldn't follow one year earlier - went on last, as if the decision was ever remotely in doubt.