No, its right that Orton should be champ because Christian is fucking terrible and a shadow of what he was. He isn't that "awesome heel" from 2005 anymore, you lot need to come to terms with that.

please explain

Randy Orton is one of the most boring wrestlers of the past 20 years. I dont get it, but obviously not many people in the crowd agree.

He got screwed simple as that, what is it with vince screwing canadians ??

Screwed? They let him win the World Heavyweight Championship.

Have we all just forgotten the other option of them never letting Christian win the title at all?

I know we're all very upset that they had Christian drop the title so quickly, but having the title for a little bit is still better than never winning the title at all, right?

He's not very good anymore.

Don't really see how he got screwed here, if nobody running the show wanted him to hold the belt he's lucky he got his big moment at Extreme Rules and held the title at all. I love Christian but I never expected him to have a run with the big one like he did with the ECW title.

3 Days in May (A Christian World Heavyweight Championship retrospective)

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At what?

He's still great in the ring, a notch above half the roster, 3 notchs ahead of Orton. He barely gets promo time and when he does he cuts face promos cos, well, he's a face. Babyface promos are harder/less interesting than heel ones.

Point is Christian isn't the star of the show and isn't given a lot to work with (hence why his pop will never compete with Orton's) but he looked to have been given something - and may still have yet.

On top of that, it's not so much that people fondly remember the Creepy Little Bastard heel Christian and more a case of wanting to see a guy that has worked hard for over 13 years finally get the credit he deserves.

This could easily be one step towards changing his character and having him chase or regain the title once again for longer than a few days this summer.

Who knows? The whole storyline with Edge and Del Rio contained the subplot of Christian being back and on fire, yet without a world title shot.
They even began to establish a little bit of ambition and jealousy in him about that belt.

This isn't a heel turn you pull off when someone is holding the belt. It can, however, happen after something like this. Achieving his dream only to be rushed into a match against Orton and lose could be feul for him snapping.
Then, he could feud with Orton for the belt.

It could be more or less a replacement angle for a possible Edge/Christian feud intended for the summer.

Or maybe that's just me being optimistic. Any number of things could happen. Just wait and see.

I was disappointed to see the results obviously, but it still doesn't change the awesomeness of Sunday night as a Christian fan.
I only really asked that he'd win a world title. I never said how long.

Good trolling. Only bad match he's had is when he first came back. Still entertaining as ever.

Didn't they know Edge was done after WrestleMania? I thought that's why they just sorta all of a sudden interjected Christian into the feud.

Turn Christian heel. Problem solved

(note: I haven't read the various threads on this subject so this has probably been suggested already)

Other people have said similar things, but this echoes my sentiments EXACTLY.

I'm bummed that Christian didn't get a lengthy reign (by that I mean 2+ months) with the belt, but this may not be a bad thing. I mean, what did people really want to see? Christian vs. Mark Henry? As soon as Christian won the World Heavyweight Title, I knew that we'd see SmackDown! open with a Christian promo and Randy Orton coming out and congratulating Christian, but saying that he won the title with help from Edge -- and he needs to prove he is worthy of being champion.

Also, given Christian's awesome promo last week, which I don't think they will just ignore, in which Christian said something along the lines of not only feeling worthy to win the World Title; but worthy enough to keep it, this whole angle takes on a new depth. Christian wasn't who he thought he was. Whether or not this leads to a pissed off Christian heel turn or not remains to be seen, but I suspect that we'll see more depth out of Christian in coming weeks, promo-wise, anyway. And that is where the man can really shine and make believers out of those who don't think he could do it, but gave him a novelty reign anyway. They obviously don't hate the guy.

I also read a set a spoilers that said that Todd Grisham interviewed Teddy Long just before the main event and asked if he thinks it's unfair if Christian defends his World Title so soon after Extreme Rules. Teddy says something like "It's not about being fair; it's about giving the fans what they want. RAW had a WWE Title match after Extreme Rules, so SmackDown! will be just as exciting and unpredictable."

So maybe this can be used to segue blame onto the fans? I mean, they could have had Orton win a Triple Threat Match to qualify for the title shot and take it next week if they really wanted to -- but I'm hoping the fan vote and it being so soon after Extreme Rules has a point to it.

Also, with Chavo Guerrero seemingly turning face (or perhaps he's just feigning a face turn?) and with Ezekiel Jackson seemingly out of Corre, Kane still on SmackDown! and Big Show able to appear there -- a top face isn't as needed for the brand so much now that Edge has been replaced with Orton. That means they could go ahead with the Christian heel turn that many people felt was coming.

Now that Christian is a former World Heavyweight Champion, his resume has been boosted, and he has proven he can win the big one. The ice has been broken, and I think Christian will see the World Heavyweight Title again -- even if it is not as the top babyface of a brand.

Christian has been part of the feud since Elimination Chamber, where he returned attacking Del Rio for putting him on the shelf. Heading into WrestleMania, Christian actually got two victories over Alberto Del Rio (one in a Steel Cage Match without any assist, I believe), but was not the one scheduled to compete for the World Heavyweight Title.

I honestly believe that plans were always to draft Del Rio to RAW (they had him appear a lot over there to promote WrestleMania), and for Edge to keep the World Title at Extreme Rules -- again with assist from Christian. Edge would then grant Christian a World Title match, Christian would lose, and then the next week would turn heel against Edge. Or something like that.

As I said, maybe Orton moving over to SmackDown! as pretty much a direct replacement for Edge, will allow plans to go on ahead as planned -- Christian as a sneaky heel challenging for the belt?

Debatable

It is debatable. You could argue that the title has no meaning whatsoever and is merely a prop.

You probably couldn't argue that this hurt Christian in any way unless it was still real to you, dammit.

Alright well I'm terribly sorry for being close minded, but I can't see the other side of that argument at all.

The only downside to Christian having the belt for a few days instead of just jobbing to Del Rio is that people will no longer be able to list him in the bi-monthly "best wrestler who was never world champion" thread. Also

All I'm saying is if Christian got screwed, Scott Hall got brutally raped by several dozen Africans.

While I don't agree with the way they took the title off of Christian, it had to have been done for a reason. If it was backstage politics, then that's just stupid, but if it was done to progress a much bigger fued between Orton and Christian then I say let it roll.

I don't really see that many other credible main eventers on Smackdown at the moment anyways. Orton, Christian, Kane, and Sheamus are really the only guys who come to mind. Sin Cara, Cody, Danielson, Riley, Barrett, Dibiase, and Zeke all could be potential main eventers, but I see maybe 1 of those guys getting a main event push this year. That being Zeke. Aside from having few main eventers, Smackdown has no real top heel. If I had to pick one right now, I'd say Sheamus is the top choice, but a heel Christian would far outweigh that.

The point is, from a logical standpoint, Orton is the best choice to be champion for now. I don't know about you guys, but an Orton/Christian fued sounds way more promising to me than a Christian/Henry or Christian/Khali fued.

Yeah, I think most likely what happened was that their plans to turn Christian into a heel against Edge fell through when Edge had to leave earlier than expected. So they did this, and now will turn him heel with basically the same stuff R-Truth is doing (Pleasing you fans never got me anywhere!)

Doesn't mean I can't be devastated about it though. When it comes to Christian, I lose all impartiality and logic.

Lock Jaw, ya need a hug buddy? *There there. There, there.*

He'll get the title back, don't worry.

Would much prefer a heel Orton to a heel Christian. Christian heel turn doesn't feel right atm.

It'll be interesting to see which way the crowd go. Christian got a pretty good reaction when he won the belt and according to the spoilers also had the crowd chanting his name after losing the title. Would the crowd favour him over Orton, I doubt it, but I'm interested to see.

Orton's a good heel so I think he could get the crowd to hate him easily enough.

You know Christian screwed himself over too. He skipped town right at the height of his popularity. Whoops.

Why The Smackdown Result Is A Good Thing (Smackdown Spoiler)
 

I was going to title this "Why Christian Losing The Belt Is A Good Thing", but event though we all know what happened by now, I didn't want to be an asshole and spoil anything.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a big Christian fan and always have been. And when he finally got the strap at Extreme Rules, I marked out like alot of the IWC. And when I heard he lost it within a week, I was also pissed a first. But after thinking about it for a bit, I think this could turn into something really good.

First of all, Christian makes a great babyface. He works just as well as a heel, but he has the charisma, talent and attitude that people just want to get behind. And with Edge's retirement, the fans are with him more than ever. On the flip side, Orton is a natural-born heel. His face turn recently has been more because of fans just wanting to cheer for him and not because he's particularly good at the role. He's vicious, he's dangerous, he's nuts and he'll do anything he can to win. But people still want to cheer him if he's not working with a strong babyface. Jumping him to Smackdown and putting him in a program with someone who is very over as a face right now is a great idea. The proof is in the automatic hate just on the results WWE and Orton have gotten recently. The two are going to have some great matches and both have the talent in the ring and on the mic to keep the fans' interest for a long time.

Secondly, I think this could be used for Christian to "prove" himself. Going into the match at Extreme Rules, he was saying how he never even touched the belt because he didn't think he was worthy of it. And how did he win the match? With the distraction from Edge. It can be argued that he won it on a fluke and still didn't deserve it. And then within a week he loses it again? They can use the angle that he tasted what it was like to be champion, and now he wants it more than ever. And more than that: he wants to earn it. He gets into a program with Orton where he gets around every obstacle and jumps every hurdle to get back to the belt. He fights hard, vicious, grueling matches, proving he can go head-to-head with Orton on every level. He chases the belt for a month or two. Maybe have a title match on Smackdown with another Edge interference, but he refuses to take it and counts himself out. Waits until his big moment, maybe at Summerslam. He finally earns the belt, 1-2-3, in the middle of the ring. And now he is the true champion on his own merits. Of course this is just armchair booking, but with how they've set this up, this could make sense in where they're going.

And finally, I am very sure he will eventually get the belt back. WWE loves babyface champions. Hogan, Warrior, Hart, Shawn, Austin, Rock, Foley, Cena, Batista. The only heel champion I can think of that wasn't there just to build a face is HHH, and no real surprises there. WWE loves having a champ who can be the positive face of the company. So while Orton has the belt now, I don't think he'll have it for too long.

So while it sucks Christian lost the belt, keep watching. Because this could start getting real good.

oh good, i was starting to worry we wouldn't hit double digits on the amount of christian loses the belt threads.....

and i dont see a program with orton happening. orton moves on to face the heels of smackdown. christian plays 2nd fiddle til he turns heel

Orton v Christian was excellent and the way the show ended hit the right note perfectly.

Norman Smiley - No need for the prickery.


I agree with the post above and it also really helped give me some perspective and hope I didn't have before. Well done.

Seeing as they just started Christian's push, I really don't see them pissing this chance away so early. And with Del Rio gone, Orton can naturally step into the top heel of the brand.

But this could just be trying to institute some logic into WWE booking, and we all know how often that happens.

Good post, Voncouch.

It's good because more people will buy Randy Orton t-shirts. /thread

Thanks Schlomey. Like the rest of us I was getting out my torch and pitchfork when I first heard the news. I was hoping turning a negative into a positive might calm a few of us down, myself included.

it worked on me at least for the time being...that is until we see how things unfold. With the WWE writing crew you never know.

In reality though, Christian will end up in a feud with Mark Henry...as planned. :(

As I posted in another thread, Smackdown has no #1 credible heel. The only established heel they really have that could take that role is Sheamus. Don't get me wrong, Cody, Zeke, and Barrett could easily jump up there too, but as of right now, SD is severly lacking in the main event scene. They have Orton, Sheamus, Kane, Christian, and sadly Mark Henry, and Khali.

I just think this whole angle is going to build to either Orton or Christian turning heel so that we have both a #1 face and a #1 heel on SD.

Good post.

Of course, it's nothing that hasn't already been said. But good post.