History Wrestling / RandyOrton

** While inactive with injury in 2008, he punts CM Punk in the skull before a World Heavyweight Championship defense as the climax to a big beatdown by Legacy. Punk can't defend the championship that night, meaning Orton basically screwed him out of the title. Punk tries to go for revenge immediately but is beaten into the background shortly thereafter. A couple years and turns later, Punk and his [[Wrestling/TheNexus New Nexus]] cost Orton a WWE title match with Wrestling/TheMiz because he's never forgotten it. So Orton goes punting New Nexus members for consecutive weeks and threatening to beat Punk so bad he has to eat through a feeding tube. [[MoralDissonance As the[= =]]][[SociopathicHero babyface]][[MoralDissonance [= =]of the feud.]]

* UngratefulBastard: Has been known to RKO people who just helped him win a match, [[MoralDissonance as a face]], including Wrestling/EvanBourne and Wrestling/JohnCena.

** Randy's descent from the "Legend Killer" to the "Viper" was characterized as this and lasted years. It first began when Wrestling/{{Evolution}} betrayed him, causing him to lose his first world title a month later. Then came his feud with Wrestling/TheUndertaker, which saw him attack his girlfriend Wrestling/StacyKeibler in order to prove he was ruthless enough to take on 'Taker at ''[=WrestleMania=]''. Losing ''that'' feud (even with his father's help!) nearly pushed him over the deep end, and it was only his partnership with Wrestling/{{Edge}} as Rated-RKO that held him together. After that partnership broke down, there was nothing and no one stopping Randy from completely losing it, as seen during his first feud with Cena. 2008 saw several abrupt bouts of violence from him (including one case of him punting Wrestling/CMPunk in the head, costing ''him'' his first world title), and then 2009 happened and that's when everyone realized how completely and utterly insane he'd become. He assaulted ever member of the [=McMahon=] family except Linda, punted several people in the head and put them on the shelf, and even once tried to blow Cena up with pyro. From that point on everyone openly acknowledged that he's crazy and he's been terrorizing WWE like that ever since.
** In Randy's feud with Wrestling/{{Christian}} was focused on Randy's [[UnstoppableRage anger]] [[HairTriggerTemper management]] [[BerserkButton issues]]. Instead, it came off as Randy actually being [[UpToEleven more unhinged than usual]], and he seemed to enjoy his own pain and that of others.

** Randy's descent from the "Legend Killer" to the "Viper" was basically characterized this and lasted years. It first began when Wrestling/{{Evolution}} betrayed him, causing him to lose his first world title a month later. Then came his feud with Wrestling/TheUndertaker, which saw him attack his girlfriend Wrestling/StacyKeibler in order to prove he was ruthless enough to take on 'Taker at ''[=WrestleMania=]''. Losing ''that'' feud (even with his father's help!) nearly pushed him over the deep end, and it was only his partnership with Wrestling/{{Edge}} as Rated-RKO that held him together. After that partnership broke down, there was basically nothing and no one stopping Randy from completely losing it, as seen during his first feud with Cena. 2008 saw several abrupt bouts of violence from him (including one case of him punting Wrestling/CMPunk in the head, costing ''him'' his first world title), and then 2009 happened and that's when everyone realized how completely and utterly insane he'd become. He assaulted basically ever member of the [=McMahon=] family except Linda, punted several people in the head and put them on the shelf, and even once tried to blow Cena up with ''pyro''. From that point on everyone openly acknowledged that he's crazy and he's been terrorizing WWE like that ever since.

* SanitySlippage: In Randy's feud with Wrestling/{{Christian}} was focused on Randy's [[UnstoppableRage anger]] [[HairTriggerTemper management]] [[BerserkButton issues]]. Instead, it came off as Randy actually being [[UpToEleven more unhinged than usual]], and he seemed to enjoy his own pain and that of others.

* FourTwentyBlazeIt: Pulls this one out during the 5/9/2022 RAW Talk segment, addressing Wrestling/TheUsos [[https://youtu.be/dCsT8OxqowM?t=172 by way of quoting]] Wrestling/RobVanDam (who in turn was paraphrasing StoneColdSteveAustin):

* FourTwentyBlazeIt: Pulls this one out during the 5/9/2022 RAW Talk segment, addressing Wrestling/TheUsos [[https://youtu.be/dCsT8OxqowM?t=172 by way of paraphrasing]] Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin:

-->'''Orton:'' [=RK-Bro=] 420 says: "We just smoked your ass."

* OddFriendship: His tag team with Wrestling/MattRiddle. The wisecracking, scooter-riding goofball and relative newcomer and the subdued, grizzled veteran should have been like chalk and cheese - but Riddle finally wore Randy down, and the two have formed a highly successful tag team.

!! "I hear tropes in my head. They counsel me. They understand. They talk to me.":

* BaldOfAwesome: As a face.

* BadassBeard: A constant coating of PermaStubble.

As usual, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Orton That Other Wiki]] has more details on his career.

** His ''Clash of Champions 2020'' match against Wrestling/DrewMcintyre was built on this trope. Not only had he received three Claymore kicks and a broken jaw in recompense for the three Punt kicks and a broken jaw he had given Drew in the direct lead-up to the match, but all those legends and veterans he'd punted during his rampage over the last several months? All of them showed up to get their licks in while Randy was in his championship ambulance match with McIntyre, which ended with McIntyre using the Punt kick on Orton himself (the first known time this has happened) and shutting him inside the ambulance for the win.

* FunnySchizophrenia: '''100% Averted''', while his mental health problems go unnamed he claims that he hears voices in his head. If you’re GenreSavvy, then probably you go “[[MentalHandicapMoralDeficency So that’s why he’s such a sadist?]]”. Well no, as it turns out ''the voices are begging him to stop his actions'', he doesn’t comply and he probably never will.

Also considered one of the more practical/lazy wrestlers in the near century-long existence of pro wrestling (counting the carny days), while every other wrestler was coming up with new crazy risky moves to finally put their opponent down, Randy Orton was the one man to go [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim "Why don't I kick him in the head really hard?"]]

-->--'''Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield'''

[[quoteright:318:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-orton_2_5084.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:318:[[HeroKiller The Legend Killer]]]]

-->'''Kane:''' Randy... you got issues.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: A possible literal example. After smashing Wrestling/CodyRhodes across the face with his own MaskOfPower and cracking it, the latter seems to have become even more dangerous than he was before.

** This also applies to his FinishingMove, the RKO. No complex set ups, no need for immense strength when used on bigger opponents, just get in front of the opponent, grab their head, turn and drop. It's simple, but effective and can be used on anyone, from bigger guys like Wrestling/TheUndertaker and Wrestling/{{Kane}}, to guys in mid-air like Wrestling/ReyMysterio and Wrestling/EvanBourne.

* WouldHitAGirl: Just ask [[Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon Stephanie]]...or Wrestling/StacyKeibler, for that matter. But especially Stephanie. In Wrestling/RoyalRumble (2019) he hit an RKO on Wrestling/NiaJax. In episode March 2nd, 2020 on Raw, Randy hit an RKO on Wrestling/BethPhoenix.

* KillItWithFire: Has done this several times. Most recently at the 2020 Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view at the end of his main-event "Firefly Inferno" Match against Wrestling/BrayWyatt. Orton – after winning the match by achieving its objective (to set your opponent on fire) beat Wyatt's alter-ego, the Fiend, into unconsciousness in the ring with multiple [=RKO=]s before dousing his prone body on fire and dropping a lighted match on it. [[note]](Of course, Windham Rotunda (who plays Bray Wyatt/The Fiend) didn't really burn. Because there was only a virtual audience at Tropicana Field, they did not see Rotunda quickly leave the ring and run to the back, and ring workers replace him with a lifelike mannequin dressed in the Fiend's clothing; the quick exchange was also not shown on-camera to the PPV audience, as they only saw Orton retrieve the gasoline cans and box of matches).[[/note]]

* WouldHitAGirl: Just ask [[Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon Stephanie]]...or Wrestling/StacyKeibler, for that matter. But especially Stephanie. In Wrestling/RoyalRumble (2019) he hit an RKO on Wrestling/NiaJax. In episode March 2nd on Raw, Randy hit an RKO on Wrestling/BethPhoenix.