5 of Randy Orton's best babyface moments in his WWE career

#3 2011 Feud with Christian for the World Heavyweight Championship

In 2011, Christian won the World Heavyweight Championship after his real-life best friend Edge, one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time, had to vacate his title and retire due to neck problems.

Despite Christian being so close to Edge, this curse was his blessing, because after so many years of being deprived of a World Championship reign, WWE knew that fans would love to see "Captain Charisma" avenge his best friend's real-life misery. Therefore they cashed in on a money-making opportunity by making Christian the World Heavyweight Champion at the Extreme Rules PPV by defeating Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match.

However, Christian lost the title after only two nights, in a match on a SmackDown against the man at the centre of this article, Randy Orton. This was thought of as a bad move on WWE's part, especially because fans had waited so long to see him become a World Champion, and to have his first World Title reign be so short was a bit of a joke.

The feud that would take place between Orton and Christian was so amazing that it made their bad move look good. Let's talk about the feud of the year below.

Both Orton and Christian were faces as the feud began, but Christian turned heel by attacking Orton with the World title belt after he was Special Guest Referee for The Viper's title match against Sheamus on an episode of SmackDown.

At the Over the Limit PPV in May, Orton retained his title against Christian in what was a great match with both men at their best, specifically Orton, who has been accused of sometimes being lazy in the ring. Then at Capital Punishment in June, the same result was witnessed.

Fortunately, the feud continued despite Orton beating Christian two times in a row. At Money in the Bank, the stakes were raised, because the stipulation was added that if Randy Orton got disqualified, Christian would win the Championship (i.e, no champ's advantage). And, this came in to play, as when Christian spat in Randy's face just as an RKO was coming, Orton lost his temper and low-blowed Christian, and Christian won the title as Orton was disqualified.

This was great because it furthered Christian as a heel who will resort to the nastiest tricks possible in order to win and it furthered support for Orton.

The blowoff PPV match in the feud then took place between the two at the second biggest PPV of the Wrestling year, SummerSlam. Orton was vying to get the title back, whilst Christian was trying to do anything and everything to keep it away from the Viper's grasp, without any morals. This time, the match at Summerslam was going to be No Hold's Barred, and now Christian was the one who had no champion's advantage.

The match outdid expectations, and it definitely was fitting of a grudge match. When all was said and done, Orton defeated Christian after an RKO onto a pair of steel stairs in the ring. Orton was World Heavyweight Champion again!

Orton faced Christian one last time to end this feud on an episode of SmackDown soon after SummerSlam, beating him again, this time inside of a Steel Cage. It was quite unfortunate that the feud ever had to end, because the WWE Universe loved.

This rivalry was truly flawless, and I think most fans would agree with me when I say that this was Randy Orton's greatest feud in his whole career; even better than his feuds when he was the heel.