6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (26 Aug - Results & Review)

2. Orton Adds Value To WHC

When Triple H unveiled the World Heavyweight Championship last spring, the title was immediately derided as a toy belt and a meaningless piece of hardware. It took Seth Rollins nearly an entire year to make it feel like something, and even then, it still was a secondary world title.

Monday night, Randy Orton managed to add gravitas to the title in one promo by tying his own career history to that title via a retired championship of the same name. Orton pointed out that when he won his first world title 20 years ago, it was the World Heavyweight Championship, and he was the youngest world champ ever, etching his name onto that title history. Then ten years ago, he unified the two world titles, thus retiring the predecessor to Gunther’s title.

Orton then noted that he was still home recovering from spinal fusion surgery last year when the World Heavyweight Championship was reborn, and he swore that his name would be engraved on that new title as well. Even though the new WHC doesn’t continue on the lineage of the former world title of the same name, Orton tied the two titles together in his mind, adding heft and significance to the current World Heavyweight Championship.

While it’s not a perfect, straight line, that little bit of connection helps at least make the title more important to Orton, and his stature as a 14-time world champion in turn adds heft to the title itself.