What’s story?
PWInsider.com is reporting that Randy Orton is no longer advertised for WWE’s live events over the next couple of weeks. Orton is expected to continue working the television tapings, but it seems as though The Viper will be taking a short break from house show duty.
In case you didn’t know...
Randy Orton returned to WWE television just ahead of SummerSlam 2016, and since then The Viper has experienced many ups and many downs. Orton faced Brock Lesnar in the main event of SummerSlam 2016 but didn’t fare too well, losing via referee stoppage after Lesnar busted him open the hard way.
Orton was soon moved into a feud with Bray Wyatt, which saw him get the upper hand on Bray before deciding to join The Wyatt Family.
Orton won the 2017 Royal Rumble before going on to challenge Bray for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33, but not before burning down the spot on which Sister Abigail lay. Orton and Wyatt concluded their feud in a House of Horrors match that will begrudgingly live long in the memory before Randy moved into a championship feud with the man who defeated him for the WWE Championship, Jinder Mahal.
The heart of the matter
With SmackDown Live suffering when it comes to TV ratings and ticket sales, one would assume that WWE would want to keep all the major stars active on the blue brand for the time being. With a new champion in Jinder Mahal on top of the show, it seems strange for a superstar of Randy Orton’s name value to take some time off, so the assumption must be that Orton has an extremely good reason for missing the shows.
But if PWInsider is correct, that is exactly what will be happening over the next couple of weekends. The Apex Predator is no longer advertised for WWE’s live events during this time, and it is unlikely whether or not the situation will be addressed by the company in any way.
It is particularly interesting that Orton is no longer advertised for the show in Knoxville, Tennessee, as this is the town in which Randy was born. Orton may well be taking some brief time off after a busy first six months of the year, or WWE could be putting the ball firmly in the hands of Mahal, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and the rest of the SmackDown Live roster.
What’s next?
It remains to be seen whether or not Orton will return to house show duty in June, or whether this news is the beginning of Orton taking a few step backs from active competition.
We do know that Orton will be getting his WWE Championship rematch at SmackDown’s next pay-per-view, Money in the Bank, which takes place on June 18 in St. Louis.
Author’s take
Whilst Orton has consistently proven that he isn’t a top drawing competitor, he still has a significant amount of name value that can be of use to WWE when it comes to live events.
With SmackDown Live in such a difficult phase, it seems strange that The Viper would be afforded time off, but that seems to be the case. It will be interesting to see who Jinder goes on to face at the live events in Orton’s absence.
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