WWE: 10 Times Triple H Consciously Didn't Do What Was "Best For Business"

5. Randy Orton Splits Off From Evolution To Begin His Big Push; HHH Beats Him A Month Later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwhnbDL-DhM So back in 2003 we got the next great instance of HHH ripping off better ideas from his formative years, as he formed his own Four Horsemen with Ric Flair as his subordinate. Ironically, this idea was called Evolution. Although I guess we should count ourselves lucky that the original plan of Mark Jindrak as the fourth guy in place of Batista didn't come to fruition. But I digress. The payoff of this was supposed to be Randy Orton getting over as the hot new act in wrestling, splitting off from the group, and beginning a glorious reign as World champion. And right on schedule, he got over in 2004 as Intercontinental champion with some great matches against Mick Foley and Edge, won himself a title shot against World champion Chris Benoit at Summerslam, and won the belt to springboard his career into the stratosphere. The next night on RAW, Evolution turned on him to begin his official babyface run, and then a month later HHH beat him cleanly to win the World title back. Wait, what? Yeah, Orton's run was a bit of a flop to say the least, but given he didn't even have a chance to headline as champion before losing it, it was a bit premature to pull the plug on him to say the least. The actual reasoning given? The World title match was supposed to headline their stupid "Taboo Tuesday" PPV, featuring fan voting, and HHH felt that fans wouldn't want to vote on three heel challengers, so naturally he had to get the title so he could have another match with Shawn Michaels. That show ended up with the lowest buyrates of the modern era. However, in one of the few cases of someone learning their lesson in wrestling, HHH repeated the Orton turn with Batista in 2005, doing everything the exact opposite from the Orton storyline and putting him over clean as a sheet three times to create a giant new star. So there you go, that's one nice thing about him.