It raises many questions for me, mainly surrounding what they were hoping to accomplish with this. The end result was that I was left feeling a bit sorry for Seth Rollins. I don't think that is what they were hoping to achieve from this. Is he a face now? I doubt it, but he came across as a sympathetic character here. Even when he was doing evil things that people didn't like, he seemed to be doing it as a means of shortcut. To me, he plays like a comic, chicken heel who always runs away and hides behind others in a comedic fashion. He did not seem to deserve what he got, in kayfabe terms, and that is a bit of an issue. A week ago he was in a comedy angle with comedian John Stewart. The whole thing was in sharp contrast to the rest of the show. The rest of the program was family friendly and quite good-natured. That is probably what made this so shocking. That and the fact that the aggressor was meant to be a face.
Is Randy Orton a heel now? I don't understand how anyone could cheer him. There is not much to like there. I did not hear anyone cheering him while it was happening either. His actions are not those of a face. He has zero personality and he does terrible things. It is hard to see how he can be a face. Are they both heels? I am not sure how that will work if they are. Rollins seems to be the defacto face in the situation from where I am sitting.
I really question what WWE was trying to achieve with this. It kills Rollins, making him look like a weakling who was destroyed, humiliated and emasculated thoroughly. He is, supposedly, the future of the company and you do this to him? I don't understand that. He has to have some credibility if you want to have him compete for the title at some point. Maybe he did something backstage that the powers that be did not like and this was his punishment for it. It is not unheard of. They do not seem sure of what they are doing with him anyway. He has gone back and forth from John Stewart to Randy Orton in just a week or two. It is unclear what the plan is for him even now. The situation is all over the place.
Then there is Orton. He went from coming back and being a face to turning heel to turning face again in about three weeks. The story was given no chance to develop. If it had played out over a month or two it would have made sense, but for everyone to trust Orton after a week only to betray them straight away is a real stretch. If he had come back at the Royal Rumble, then turned at Fastlane, it would have made much more sense and would have had a bigger impact. Orton comes out of this looking tough, but he looks like a bully. He is meant to be a face. How can people cheer for him? He looked remorseless. Yet, he seems to still be in the face roll in the feud. I don't quite understand that. The only thing that seems to be achieved was that Randy Orton looked physically tough. That was probably his goal in all of this.
It makes me wonder if the whole thing was put into motion by Orton's ego and influence backstage. The only motivation that I could see behind something like this is to stroke Orton's ego. Maybe the whole thing was meant to be slapstick, but it did not come across that way. It was just someone humiliating someone to an almost silent arena. I also wonder where they go from here. There is still a few weeks left until the match. What could they possibly do next?
Maybe I am alone in this. Maybe other people enjoyed this segment or thought it was great, but I found it unpleasant and over the top. We will see where they go from here, hopefully not more of the same.
What do you think about how WWE set up this storyline? Does this make Rollins look like the face and Orton the heel? Are you excited for their WrestleMania match or is this not doing it for you? Leave a comment below and tell us what's on your mind.
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