Randy Orton made a triumphant return to WWE this July at Battleground. Prior to Battleground, it was announced that he was being drafted to Smackdown Live. It was announced prior to that, that Randy Orton would be facing Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. In the build to Summerslam, Orton had faced Intercontinental Champion The Miz, Heath Slater, and Alberto Del Rio.
At Summerslam, The Viper lost to Brock Lesnar in the main event after Lesnar viciously elbowed Randy Orton and busted him open. Orton laid there with a pool of blood and referee Mike Chioda stopped the bout declaring Lesnar the winner by TKO. However, it wasn’t a bad sign for Orton, as he was still protected quite a bit in defeat, as he was not pinned.
It seems to appear that Orton agreeing and being a good sport about taking the beating from Lesnar has earned him heavy praise from Vince McMahon according to Allwrestlingnews.com, he is also quite high on him at the moment. This likely means that Orton will be getting the win over Bray Wyatt in their expected match at No Mercy. However, Smackdown Live is looking at rehashing long-term storytelling, so it would make sense for their feud to carry on for a couple of more months.
The issue is that the Randy Orton-Bray Wyatt feud has been quite lacklustre so far. Both stars are beloved by the fans individually, but something about their feud has just not clicked. Add to the fact that they had a match built up for Backlash and after Orton was not cleared by the medical team to perform, he had to be replaced by Kane and that was something that did not sit well with the fans.
However, Orton has been cleared and had a rematch on Saturday Night against Brock Lesnar in a first-ever Suplex City Death Match at Chicago in a live event. The match was a good one, but Orton lost yet again. This was only expected as Lesnar is the most protected star on the WWE roster and his first singles loss since 2013 definitely will not come on a live event.
With regards to Orton being in the Smackdown Live World Championship picture, it is not known yet when he will enter back into it. It is likely that he may enter into the title picture after his feud with Bray Wyatt. It is being said that Styles is going to be WWE World Champion for a while now, so it may only be a matter of time before we see Orton vs Styles.
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