7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (13 March - Results & Review)
1. The Upside To Randy Orton’s Turn
The downside to Randy Orton's "heel turn" was examined earlier, but there was an upside.
Orton executed everything flawlessly here. The legend warned Cody Rhodes that he put himself in the crosshairs by dethroning Drew McIntyre, then brutally beat his old protege after signing the contract for their match at WrestleMania 42. This was borderline vintage Randy from the evil anger issues days, and that’s meant as a compliment. Cody’s bloody sell job was like Dusty in his prime too, so he can be proud of that.
Not even Jelly Roll could calm his friend down or stop him from cracking Rhodes with a vicious steel chair shot. At one point, Randy even shoved Jelly to the ground at ringside, and he did the same to GM Nick Aldis. Hopefully, Aldis follows up on this by fining Orton so Drew McIntyre can laugh at how Nick is struggling to keep a lid on some of the more unruly characters on SmackDown.
It's unfortunate that fans didn't heap sympathy on Cody considering the strength of his selling. He floundered around out of it after eating some steel steps to the face, then those steps came in handy for Orton's aforementioned chair shot. That crack when Randy hit the steel sounded sickening.
More work on this level would help sell 'Mania. Quite why WWE have taken this long to get to angles of this calibre is anyone's guess, but at least we're here now. Next stop, a brutal kicking from Cody to Randy that shows he won't back down or take the abuse.
What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more like this, check out The WORST Moment From Every WWE WrestleMania and WWE Gimmicks That FAILED The HARDEST Every Year (1985-2025)!