WWE WrestleMania 33: Assessing The Potential Of All 14 Matches
3. Bray Wyatt Vs. Randy Orton - WWE Title Match
Randy Orton has developed a (mostly unfair) reputation for tedium. His methodical and gradually-paced matches have the audacity to make sense, a crime in the spot-heavy era in which he performs.
Smoke exists where there is fire. Much like Triple H, Orton's in-ring abilities are decidedly opponent-specific. Paired opposite a more dynamic, athletic, and loathsome performer like Christian, Orton excelled, using his uncanny ability to reverse practically anything thrown at him in a gripping drip-feed of excitement and audience catharsis.
Opposite men who, like him, operate mostly within the overarching WWE storytelling mode, he struggles. His matches with John Cena were exhausting and one-dimensional finisher kickout festivals. The Last Man Standing aberration at No Mercy 2007 aside, his interminable, intermittent feud with Triple H was deathly dull - an almost parodic slant on what a WWE style match should look like.
Bray Wyatt poses an interesting challenge. In straight singles matches, Wyatt has often struggled to amplify his great character work. In short, his matches play well on camera, but not to the cheap seats - and the lack of sustained heat often adversely affects the atmosphere.
Wyatt vs. Orton might be too cinematic for its own good - ill-fitted to the stadium environment.