6 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (March 7)

1. ‘This Man Is My Friend’

Oh, they’re going all-in here, aren’t they?

We’ve been anticipating the eventual betrayal from Randy Orton, the point at which he finally turns on Riddle and breaks up RK-Bro. There was a fair amount of speculation that this night, which could have come a few different times, could have easily come Monday night after Riddle took the pinfall in the tag title match.

But then that didn’t happen. In fact, RK-Bro regained the Raw Tag Team Championship. Stranger still, Orton then took the mic and said he’s been doing this for 20 years and never had more fun than with Riddle. He then dove all the way in and said Riddle was his friend and hugged his tag partner.

Orton has never been that guy. His entire character has been a loner, even when he was part of a team or stable. This is a different side of Randy, which makes it all the more intriguing. And it also sucks the fans in even more into the RK-Bro act… which will make the fall of the team even more precipitous and crushing.

The only trick here is that WWE can’t miss the window. They can’t overshoot or wait too long, to when fans stop caring or don’t strike when the opportunity is right. Unfortunately, WWE doesn’t have a great track record with this, but they’ve done a good deal correct with this tandem.