Randy Orton had his last match at the Backlash PPV following Wrestlemania prior to this week of Smackdown. Jeff Hardy was his opponent at that match where he tried to win back the United States Championship. Needless to say, he was not successful to win as he was dealing with an injury. It was a knee problem that gave him troubles for a long time.
A surgery became evident to fix the problems. So Randy Orton had to take a hiatus from WWE TV. He underwent the knives to repair a medial meniscus tear in his left knee. WWE.com confirmed this giving update that he will be out for at least two months. He was good to go in time for Extreme Rules and returned on the same night.
He attacked Jeff Hardy to make the biggest impact upon return. No one saw that coming especially for The Viper who was a universal babyface. These two are continuing feud ever since then on Smackdown. He is already a living legend in the WWE who might not suit a heel role, anymore. But that was not the case as per his own opinion.
Apparently, Randy Orton was pushing the WWE creative team for a villainous gimmick for a long time. We have previously heard him saying in interviews about wanting a heel role. He feels comfortable with it which allows variations in character, unlike a face role that sometimes makes things stale.
It was the primary reason that the officials wanted to attach the heel gimmick to his character, again. Plus, most of the fans do think that none one can play the heel character better than Randy Orton. Over the years, we have seen him doing some unthinkable being such an obnoxious person. Check out the updates regarding this transformation of character from WrestleVotes,
“Regarding Randy Orton’s heel turn, it has been something he’s wanted for a while now. Orton definitely pushed for it. I’m expecting him to be the top heel on SmackDown going forward. With him, Nakamura, Joe, Miz & Almas, SD has a strong mix of main event level heels.”
Reports already suggested that Randy Orton will work only a few dates on Smackdown for the rest of 2018. From that perspective, he should not become the US or any champion by any means. WWE still gave him the title prior to the Wrestlemania season. It was a short run that came to an early end at the biggest event of the year.