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

#5 His WrestleMania feud with Seth Rollins

Orton's feud with Seth Rollins played out so well for both men

Randy Orton turned heel by aligning himself with The Authority in August of 2013 at SummerSlam, after Triple H and The Viper screwed Daniel Bryan out of the WWE Championship, hence Orton became WWE Champion. Orton eventually lost the WWE World Heavyweight title to Bryan eight months later in the triple threat main event of WrestleMania 30 which also involved Batista.

"The Viper" would soon become the second fiddle in the Authority when Seth Rollins turned his back on The Shield and also aligned himself with The Authority. After Rollins won the Money in the Bank Briefcase in June of 2014, signs of tension between the men were planted within Authority segments by the WWE, because The Authority were now more focused on helping Rollins get the World Title than Orton regain it.

In October of that year, the dislike the two had for one another reached a boiling point, and after Orton, Rollins and Kane won a 3-on-2 handicap match against John Cena and Dean Ambrose on Raw, Rollins attacked Orton with a Curb Stomp. The next week on Raw saw Orton go against the wishes of The Authority as he RKO'd Rollins in revenge for the previous week, which was the start of another face turn by The Viper.

In the coming weeks, The Authority tried to keep on the good side of Orton by granting his request for a match against Seth. Rollins would win the match, but Orton confirmed his face turn after the match by ambushing The Authority.

However, The Viper's ambush was unsuccessful, as Rollins ended up Curb Stomping his head onto the steel steps. This lead to Orton missing five months of action, which was WWE's way of writing him off TV for a few months as he filmed the Condemned 2.

At the FastLane PPV in February 2015, Authority members Rollins, Big Show and Kane won a six-man tag team match against Erick Rowan, Ryback and Dolph Ziggler and proceeded to attack their opponents after the match. The assault was soon stopped though as Orton made his return and pounced on the Authority with RKO's on Kane, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, but Rollins quickly escaped the ring to avoid the Viper's venomous vengeance.

The next two episodes of Raw saw Rollins and The Authority trying to get Randy to calm down and rejoin the faction despite all that happened. But Orton only played along with their wishes for a while before finally revealing his true intentions to destroy them by viciously laying waste to Rollins after they faced Roman Reigns in a 2-on-1 handicap and lost.

On the 16th of March episode of Raw, it was made official that Orton and Rollins would face each other in a singles match at WrestleMania 31, much to the excitement of the WWE Universe.

At the event on March 29th, the best wrestling match on the WM card and one of the finest matches of Orton's career saw him defeat Rollins, and what a finish to the match we witnessed! When Seth went for a curb stomp, Randy Orton turned it into a mid-air RKO, which got him a great reaction.

Later that night, Rollins cashed-in his Money in the Bank contract during the Lesnar v Reigns WWE World Title main event and won the title after Curb Stomping Reigns. It was amazing booking by WWE, because he didn't need to beat Orton earlier on in the night as he was going strong anyway when they had him become the World Champ.

Despite WrestleMania ending, the feud known as The Face (Orton) against The Future (Rollins) did not, as Orton won a triple threat number one contender's match to earn the right to a Title match against Rollins at the Extreme Rules PPV. Rollins managed to beat Orton inside of a Steel Cage at the PPV after much interference from The Authority (Kane and J + J Security).

Looking back, this is the last meaningful feud that Randy Orton has had, face or heel. Rollins' style seemed to go along well with Orton and WWE built up to their match at WrestleMania really well with the slow face turn of Orton. WWE creative need to look back at this rivalry too, because they should take their time developing stories like they did in this case more often. Rollins was a great heel to make Orton the popular babyface again.