Wrestler Prospective: Randy Orton

## 2002

### Debut

After 2 years of trainning in OVW, Randy Orton debuted in May of 2002. Defeating Hardcore Holly on SmackDown. After, Orton went into a small feud with Holly where he was the face.

### Shoulder Injury

In September of 2002, Orton was drafted to Raw but shortly after got a horrible Shoulder Injury.

## 2003

### Randy News Network

While Orton was injured, he debuted something called Randy News Network where he would give updates on his condition and turning heel in the process. He would have times where you would see him in the back saying how much percent it was healed. The best instance was once when Scott Steiner was tearing up the locker room and found Orton and was going to hit him until Orton said "My shoulder is only at 93%. I don't need a setback." And Steiner threw him to the ground and said "I don't give a shit."

### Evolution beginnings

After Randy was fully recovered, he joined Evolution with Triple H, Batista and Ric Flair. The group had a rough beginning where most members were not used in the spotlight besides Triple H and Flair.

### Rivalry with Shawn Michaels

At Bad Blood 2003, Ric Flair had a match with Shawn Michaels, Michaels was about to win until Randy costed Michaels the match and Flair won.

Before they would have their natural encounter, Summerslam 2003 happened, a 6 Man Elmination Chamber Match for The World Heavyweight Championship. Orton, Michaels, Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash, Goldberg and Triple H were all set to do war inside Statan's Prison. Triple H wanted Orton to be his sidekick and help him win the match. Orton wasn't able to as he was eliminated by Goldberg and Shawn was eliminated by Goldberg as well.

Orton and Michaels went on to Unforgiven 2003 and had a good match where Orton got his first big win in his career. The rivalry drew out from there.

### Austin vs Bischoff

So, I think we all know the story of when Raw had Co-General Mangers in 2003. Well, they had a traditional Survivor Series Match to prove who was going to be the single GM on Raw.

Team Austin consisted of The Dudley Boyz, Shawn Michaels, Rob Van Dam and Booker T versus Team Bischoff which had Orton, Chris Jericho, Christian, Mark Henry and Scott Steiner. After 30 minutes, it was down to Shawn and Randy again, this time Batista costed Shawn the victory and Orton was the Soul Survivor.

### Intercontinental Gold

For being the Soul Survivor for Bischoff, Eric gave Orton the opportunity to go for the Intercontinental Championship against RVD at Armageddon 2003. Orton had a huge chip on his shoulder and well-deserved for winning the Austin vs Bischoff match just a month ago. Orton ended up winning the Intercontinental Title from RVD and winning his first Championship in WWE.

## 2004

### Royal Rumble

Randy Orton entered Number #2 at the Royal Rumble 2004. He had an amazing preformance, having the second longest time that year before being eliminated by the man who he would start a rivalry with after the Rumble, Mick Foley.

### Rivalry with Mick Foley

Weeks before WrestleMania 20, Evolution challenged Mick Foley to a match at that very show. Foley said he wasn't coming alone and brought out The Rock. The 2 went against every member of Evolution besides the World Champion at the time, Triple H. Evolution did get the win over Rock N Sock Connection when Orton pinned Foley.

Foley left for a week or two until challenged by Orton again for Backlash 2004. Foley said the only way he would do it is if Evolution was banned from Ringside and it was a Hardcore Match AND it had to be for the Intercontinental Championship. The two had arguably the greatest Hardcore battle ever seen inside WWE. Orton did end up getting the win and cementing himself as just not a face and body of a perfect wrestler but he had the skills and viciousness to be one the greatest ever.

### Losing the Intercontinental Title

After Orton's rivalry with Foley, Orton went on to have a short rivalry with upstart Shelton Benjamin at Bad Blood 2004. Orton escaped almost losing his Intercontinental Championship. Another man targeted Orton's Intercontinental Title, Edge. They had a match at Vengeance 2004, where Edge ended the 7 month title reign of Randy Orton, the longest reign WWE had seen in 7 long years. Fun Fact: It was beaten only 6 months later by Shelton Benjamin, who wore it for 9 months.

### Winning World Championship Gold

After losing his Intercontinental Championship, Randy Orton won a Battle Royal for the Number #1 Contender's Match against Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship.

They had the match at SummerSlam 2004 where Randy Orton became the yongest World Champion of all time at the age of 24. You can just say, 2004 was a great year for Randy Orton.

Orton beat Lesnar's record of youngest World Champion, Lesnar was 25 when he won his first world title who beat The Rock at SummerSlam 2002, Rock was the youngest one before that, at 27.