10 Worst Booked WWE Champions Of All Time
5. Randy Orton
As was previously mentioned, Randy Orton became the youngest World Champion in company history at SummerSlam 2004, but his World Title run would be short lived and he would lose it to Triple H just a month later at the Unforgiven PPV.
The problem with Orton’s brief run was that he was booked as a babyface despite the audience never being given a reason why Orton was someone they should root for. In the eyes of the fans, he was still this awful human being that did awful things and the only reason they should be cheering for him was that Triple H no longer wanted him in the Evolution stable.
There was a clear disconnect in the booking of Orton as a World Champion and WWE failed to present fans with a reason to gravitate towards the young babyface. WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross would comment on the booking of Orton as World Champion in 2004 during his Grilling JR podcast. JR stated:
"I’m not sure that Vince at that point in time had confidence that Randy was gonna be a great long-term champion. He wasn’t sold on the idea. He wasn’t sold on — I don’t know if he trusted Randy, or still had some doubts because of his dishonorable discharge, which was an issue getting him hired. But you know, we prevailed and it worked out pretty well for Randy, and the WWE, and the fans."