If there’s one truth in professional wrestling it’s the right and wrong time, and This Day in Wrestling History is about that and other factors in what makes a champion.
On September 12, 2004 Triple H defeated Randy Orton to win back the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven from Portland, Oregon.
This wasn’t long after Orton won the title, and there were a series of events that caused his first run to be cut shorter than it was.
While the current WWE doesn’t really create stars anymore as it’s believed the brand is the WWE and not the champion, but prior to that the champion was the face of the company.
They carried the weight of the company on their shoulders, and sometimes the company’s choice doesn’t work out for one reason or another
Not working out
While he was tabbed to be the youngest world champion in WWE history, even Orton says he wasn’t ready yet and he offered some insight into what happened.
Special thanks to @awrestinghistorian (https://www.instagram.com/awrestlinghistorian/) for the transcript.
“If I’d represented the company well, as far as being the champion, and been real good at it, it would have been longer. It was one of those things where I was a transitional champ, Triple H beat me for it the next month.
“They also turned me babyface at the drop of a hat. Actually, it was the day after I won the World Heavyweight Championship that I became a babyface. That was a really hard way to get going and to stay over.
“As a heel I was just starting to get some fire and people were starting to respond to me. To turn me babyface from being a dickhead, they didn’t buy it, it wasn’t really something the fans went with. It was kind of my fault. It was my fault and it was the writers’ fault. It didn’t bother me. I still had that title that I was a one time World Champion and the youngest ever.” – Randy Orton, Silvervision interview, June 2006.
While Orton attacked Triple H and Evolution the following night on Raw to keep their feud going, at the end of the day this was the end of Orton’s title run until three years later.
There are always teaching and learning points throughout our lives, and This Day in Wrestling History is no different.
Orton has gone onto have a Hall of Fame career and could break Ric Flair’s 16 world title record before he’s through.
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