This Sunday, at WWE Over The Limit, Randy Orton and Christian will face off in a match to determine the World Heavyweight Champion. After only three weeks of construction, it is a feud that is set to steal the show at the impending pay-per-view. But what led to the rivalry between these two Superstars? Let me give you a timeline guide detailing how this one came about.
April 25th 2011
Orton was drafted to SmackDown to take the place of a retiring Edge. Edge had been carrying the SmackDown show as the main attraction of the brand, so when he retired, Orton stepped in to fill the void. With Christian being named the No. 1 contender after winning a Battle Royale, many speculated it would only be a matter of time before these two Superstars met in the squared circle.
April 29th 2011
In Orton’s first SmackDown appearance since being drafted, he competed in a tag match with Christian. They faced Del Rio and Brodus Clay. They won and were represented as the two most dominant men on the SmackDown roster.
Their dominance was cemented by the fact that Christian was the No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship and Orton had made a big impact on his first SmackDown. (You can read more about Orton’s first appearance on SmackDown here.)
May 1st 2011
Extreme Rules 2011. Some would argue that the feud began from the foundations set at this pay-per-view—but I believe they were already brewing from the tag match on SmackDown, as mentioned in the last paragraph. Here, Orton defeated Punk, ending their long feud, leaving him free to challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship if the opportunity arose.
Christian won his brutal ladder match against Del Rio to claim the World Heavyweight Championship he had sought for 17 years. (You can read more about his win here.) The IWC was finally happy about something. Christian had achieved not only his dream, but the dream of all his supporters.
Many expected an encounter with Orton at Over The Limit to be built for the recently acquired Championship—they did not expect a pay-per-view worthy match on SmackDown, which is what they got.
May 6th 2011
Teddy Long asked the crowd who they wanted Christian to face for the title on SmackDown. They chose Orton. In what I considered to be one of the best matches of the year to date, Orton managed to reclaim the World Heavyweight Championship from Christian’s waist.
Christian was left in tears in the middle of the ring as his 17 year dream had been crushed before it had properly started. Websites were flooded with complaints and angry Peeps venting their frustrations at the first people they could think of to blame—Randy Orton and Vince McMahon.
What I believe we were seeing, was the start of an extended program between the two Superstars, focusing around the title. In retrospect, WWE were very clever in taking the belt off Christian as it allows him to become a heel with relative ease, and it made it one of the most talked about feuds of the year.
May 13th 2011
A week after his devastating loss, Christian congratulated Orton and said he respected Long’s decision to have him defend the title. Orton saved Christian from a beat down from Sheamus and Mark Henry, and a tag match was set up with Orton and Christian as partners.
There were a couple of corny backstage segments where the two Superstars were being extremely cordial with each other. Christian told Orton he would win the title back and Orton said he only saved Christian because he wants him at 100 percent at Over The Limit. When the tag match came around, Orton and Christian once again reigned supreme.
As much as things looked to be all hunky-dory, many people noticed a disturbance in the force when Christian was watching his loss back on the TitanTron. He looked like he may be bottling up a lot of anger and WWE looks to be itching to turn Christian heel at any point. They won’t turn Orton heel due to him being in the same situation as Cena, but on SmackDown.
Present Day
This leads us to the present day. It is safe to say, the main reason for the rivalry between Orton and Christian is because of the World Heavyweight Championship. Randy crushed the dreams of Christian and he is looking for revenge, though his emotions are only subtly presented to the audience.
It is clear to those with a keen eye that Christian is becoming angrier—intensifying the building rivalry between the two.
With one more SmackDown to go before Over The Limit, will this rivalry be further developed? Will Christian’s impending heel turn surface or will it be kept under wraps for the pay-per-view?
I would imagine they will keep the audience going along with the fact that Christian is a lovable babyface, and then spring his nasty side on everyone at Over The Limit.
What do you think? Please let me know in the comments section below. I do my best to reply to all comments as you all know by now.
I will be back tomorrow with my SmackDown review.
Thanks for reading!
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