Did the Foley feud in 2003/2004 'make' Randy Orton?

[héad.casé]

At the time, Orton was getting some momentum, was "the future" of Evolution, had just been coined "The Legend Killer", won his first Intercontinental Title from RVD at Armageddon 2003, and Mick Foley had come back specifically to work with Randy Orton. I loved the feud myself. You had Orton trying to get Foley to fight him, but Foley walked away after Orton spit in his face, leaving the fans wondering what was coming next. Foley returns and is gunning for Orton at the Rumble, and I believe Foley eliminates both himself and Orton with the Cactus clothesline, then there was the Evolution vs Rock and Sock Connection match at Wrestlemania 20 (a match Foley was legit disappointed with his performance in), but boy did he redeem himself in the Hardcore Match with Orton a month later. Foley now considers it still one of his favourite matches, and said in an ROH shoot that without the angle and match with him, he doesn't think Orton goes to Summerslam and takes the World Title.

So was this "the" feud that made Randy Orton? I kinda think it did. Plus Foley hadn't returned and jobbed so much that a win over him didn't mean anything at this time.

[Crimson]

More or less. Orton is really a trick case though because, even though the Legend Killer was when he was probably at his best Charisma-wise, his main even run kind of tanked. He spent most of the Legend Killer run as an upper-midcard worker. It wasn't until his late 07/08 title run that Orton really took off.

[rapidfire187]

It's my favorite Orton match and one of my favorite Foley matches. That said, it's like Orton proved he was tough in that one match and decided to never do anything like it again.

[Sparkybob]

It proved Orton would do anything to get a match over and wasn't just getting by due to his name.

[Rican]

Dec 29, 2014 22:35:35 GMT -5 Crimson said:

More or less. Orton is really a trick case though because, even though the Legend Killer was when he was probably at his best Charisma-wise, his main even run kind of tanked. He spent most of the Legend Killer run as an upper-midcard worker. It wasn't until his late 07/08 title run that Orton really took off.

They pulled the trigger on him winning his first world title way too early, seemingly just so Brock wouldn't be the youngest champion ever anymore. The night after the world title win is when it all went downhill and he didn't recover for years like you mentioned.