If you’ve taken a step away from the world of professional wrestling over the last six weeks or so, you’ve missed a lot. John Cena is coming back, the Superstar Shake-Up didn’t really work out and Randy Orton waged war on the entire independent scene. That last one is what we’re going to be focusing on, as you’ve probably worked out by now.
Orton at his core is one of the most crisp and refined wrestlers that the WWE has seen in the last few decades. He makes every single thing that he does inside the squared circle look easy, and by default that usually makes the other superstar(s) look better as a result. Still, there’s more to the business than that which is what Randy fails to understand.
The Viper took it upon himself a while back to comment on indie wrestlers and all of their high flying moves, mocking them using terms such as “dive” and “headlock” in a comparative manner. As you can imagine some people reacted badly to that, and therefore we decided it’d be a good idea to fantasise over the possible grudge matches Randy could have because of this.
With that being said, here are five indie match-ups for Randy Orton.
#5 Bully Ray
The main target of Orton’s online tirade was Bully Ray, also known as Bubba Ray Dudley. Orton went for Ray because of his age and what he was doing on the indies, and to say it sparked a reaction would be an understatement. Still, we’re positive that they’ll put the whole ordeal behind them and are ready to move on right?
We don’t really care because the smart money says they should have a match. It’d be even better if it was Orton going into enemy territory on the indies, but that may be a step too far in this instance.
Either way, we’re positive that they’d have good chemistry together, and the promos would be amazing.
#4 Will Ospreay
Will Ospreay was one of the first big names to respond to this controversy, and the more we think about it the more we want to see this match. Ospreay reminds us of Kofi Kingston in a lot of ways when it comes to his move set and personality, and if you remember all the way back to 2009, Orton and Kofi actually had quite a solid feud.
In terms of Osprey himself, though, the guy knows how to put on a barnstormer of a match and it’d be fascinating to see Randy get more and more agitated by the high flying nature of his opponent.
In the end, we’d quite enjoy a devastating RKO out of nowhere, but perhaps that’s the cynic in us coming out to play. Sorry, Will.
#3 Ricochet
Ricochet quite literally has it all. The look, age on his side, the personality and the in-ring abilities. One of his gimmick nicknames is ‘King’ Ricochet and it’s hard to argue with that, because the guy has been able to transform himself in a variety of ways over the last few years. Hell, he even wrestled under a mask as Prince Puma for Lucha Underground.
Ricochet could come in as the cocky youngster who Orton needs to take down a few pegs, which would provide us with a similar scenario to the Orton-Benoit feud from back in 2004.
We’d have Ricochet catch Orton with a surprise move ‘out of nowhere’, giving The Apex Predator a taste of his own medicine.
#2 Zack Sabre Jr.
Now wouldn’t this be an interesting change of pace. The assumption of top level superstars is that all the independent wrestlers do is fly around the ring, when in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. Zack Sabre Jr. is arguably the best technical wrestler in the world, and you can just picture the chemistry he’d have with Randy.
Not only would it make Orton seem like a hypocrite, but it’d also make a lot of sense. ZSJ has already been in the WWE in the Cruiserweight Classic, so it’d probably be a lot easier to set up too.
Sure it wouldn’t be the most exciting match in the world to a neutral viewer, but that’s not nearly as important as the message it sends. Technical wrestling matters.
#1 Kenny Omega
Now, this would just be fun. Kenny Omega, the king of the indies, in many ways, answering the call from Orton to prove that not all of the world’s best wrestlers reside in WWE. To say it would be the most physical match of Randy’s career would be a dramatic understatement, and maybe that’s exactly what The Viper needs.
He had the match against Brock at SummerSlam last year, but a back and forth slobber knocker with Omega could really open his eyes to what he needs to change in his game.
It’s no secret that the WWE Universe are getting a bit tired of him, and this could revitalise his career in so many different ways.
