10 Things We Learned From The Post-Backlash WWE SmackDown (May 23)
9. Hometown...Hero?
Last year, Randy Orton having his skull split open by Brock Lesnar briefly made him the most interesting character in the industry. A feud with the equally drab Bray Wyatt looked set to put crowds worldwide into a coma, but bizarrely, their sudden union made both substantially more interesting.
It was following their severance that they returned to type. Bray a mumbling buffoon and Orton a bone-dry babyface. Disasters at consecutive pay-per-views were an inevitability of their collective uselessness and 'The Viper' was served up to Jinder Mahal as a final coda to the whole wretched affair.
It's WWE though, so of course rematch time beckons. Smackdown Live! Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that Randy would be getting his return contest at June's Money In The Bank pay-per-view, which conveniently occurs in Orton's hometown of St Louis, Missouri.
This may marginally increase the heat, but if reactions to the 15 minute stinker 'The Apex Predator' had with Sheamus are anything to go by the last time WWE braved his homeland for 2015's Battleground, even the natives don't particular care for their local hero.
Which begs the question, who really does? Orton took great pride in sharing how much wealth he'd amassed when having a clichéd stab at independent wrestling. Maybe he ought to just p*ss off and enjoy some of it.