Randy Orton has faced the double-edged sword of early success like few others, but the odd thing is that he may have fit in better during an earlier time; before gossiping about wrestling became as ubiquitous as the sport itself, being a third-generation wrestler and a member of a stable like Evolution would have been seen as a good thing. Back then, though, a wrestler wouldn't have become World Champion as quickly as Orton did - that's what the Intercontinental and U. S. titles were for. Orton's ring work has improved, personality-wise, though, he's still the equivalent of the glam metal bands that went grunge in the late nineties. His gimmicks, from the legend killer to the world's least-interesting schizophrenic, have done little to excite longtime fans. WWE knows this, and in a meta-fictional twist even a literature professor could love, has aligned Orton, on-screen, with his actual backstage benefactors, the Authority. Orton was the youngest World Champion in wrestling history. The scariest thing about that is that records are meant to be broken, and one day, someone at WWE will have the bright idea of putting the strap on an eighth grader. Get ready for the G-Era.
Check out "The Champ" by my alter ego, Greg Forrest, in Heater #12, at http://fictionmagazines.com.
I used to do a mean Glenn Danzig impression. Now I just hang around and co-host The Workprint podcast at http://southboundcinema.com/.
