10 WWE Superstars Who Got Too Much Too Soon

Ten-time WWE Champion. Four-time World Heavyweight Champion. Four-time Tag Team Champion. Two-time Royal Rumble winner. Grand Slam and Triple Crown Champion. One of the greatest finishers in wrestling history. It’s safe to say that Randy Orton will go down as one of the best in WWE history.

But it almost never happened.

Earmarked for success early on in his career in 2002, the ‘Legend Killer’ gained serious momentum as the rising star within Evolution. A fantastic feud with Mick Foley and a run with WWE Intercontinental Championship, along with his alliance with Ric Flair and Triple H, had Orton on an undeniable path to main event supremacy.

Then, much like his RKO, from out of nowhere, WWE decided to cut off his IC Title run, make him the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship and had him end Chris Benoit’s underwhelming reign with Big Gold at SummerSlam 2004. To double down on this, WWE then turned Orton face, tried unsuccessfully to turn him into the next Rock, and within a few months Randal Keith had to turn heel to try and salvage his career.

Make no mistake about it, that title win and face turn came way too soon for Orton, who just wasn’t ready for the position, nor were fans aching for it to happen. Compared to the slow, steady turn of Batista, it’s amazing that ‘The Apex Predator’ ever recovered from being thrust to the top of the card that quickly and illogically.