Randy Orton enjoyed quite the rise through the ranks of WWE, thanks to his association with Triple H and spot as a member of Evolution. Despite suffering some injury setbacks, Orton moved up the card nicely, taking out legends like Shawn Michaels, winning the Intercontinental Title and then legitimising himself thanks to his hardcore war with Cactus Jack at Backlash 2004. After Orton proved he could hang with Mick Foley in that setting, he began hearing cheers. Then the cheers got louder and more frequent and WWE were convinced they had their next babyface sensation. Orton became a made man at SummerSlam when he ended Chris Benoit's World Heavyweight Title reign in a good main event, becoming the youngest ever WWE World Champion in the process. Of course, Orton's mentor Triple H couldn't have someone so close to him holding the big gold belt, so he and the rest of Evolution turned on The Legend Killer on the post-SummerSlam Raw. Orton was now officially a babyface. And what a mistake that turned out to be. Orton completely failed to translate into a natural, likeable babyface and it was apparent that fans were cheering for him because he had become something of a 'cool heel' over the summer months. Now a bona fide good guy, those same fans found it hard to get behind young Randal. The upshot was that he lost the World Heavyweight Title (to Triple H, of course) after only a month and then hovered around the title scene for a while, trying to salvage his babyface run, before the company relented and turned him heel in order to feud with The Undertaker. His face run was such a disappointment, and a mistake on WWE's part.
