13 Ups And 23 Downs For WWE In 2020

9. Orton Torches Fiend

Randy Orton The Fiend
WWE

OK, so fair warning, this might be getting ranked a little high because it’s still fresh in our minds.

But Randy Orton’s feud with Bray Wyatt was another horrific rivalry involving the Viper in 2020. Sure, the two have a history with each other, but that feud ended in the god-awful WrestleMania 33 match, so why on Earth would you want to revisit it?

Nonetheless, that’s exactly what WWE did this fall, pitting Wyatt against Orton, this time without clearly delineated face/heel lines (though it was safe to assume Randy hadn’t had a face turn). This climaxed at TLC with a match between Orton and Fiend that was suddenly turned into a Firefly Inferno match, which gave us one of the worst moments of 2020.

After surviving a gas-soaked rocking chair, Orton managed to light Fiend on fire, then hit an RKO for good measure. With Fiend laid out, Orton doused him in gasoline, then lit him (or an obvious dummy) on fire. Even in the confines of professional wrestling, lighting another living person on fire like this is just beyond the pale.

And everyone is the worse for having witnessed this.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.