Big Vinny V’s Mr. SummerSlam Countdown: Randy Orton finishes tied for No. 5
Welcome to the Mr. SummerSlam Countdown, our look at the wrestlers who have the most matches named as the best on WWE’s biggest show of the summer. Our first name today: Randy Orton, who finishes tied for fifth in our rankings. We’ll check in on the wrestler he was tied with later today.
Prior articles in this series:
Orton has had 17 matches at SummerSlam, first in an Elimination Chamber match in 2003, and most recently teaming with Jelly Roll to face Drew McIntyre & Logan Paul in 2025. He has finished with the best match on the show four times. Here are those four matches, in chronological order.
2004: Randy Orton vs. Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship
Dave Meltzer: ****1/4
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Readers: 83% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 7.88
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Chris Benoit would go on to murder his wife and son, and knowing that makes it less fun to watch his matches in hindsight. At the time, there was no question he was among the best bell-to-bell wrestlers in the world, and his match against Orton was an easy choice for the best match on this show. (Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle was the only other match to get votes as the best of the night from Observer readers.)
Here’s what Meltzer wrote about Orton’s historic win at the time:
Orton, born April 1, 1980, became the youngest world champion in company history with a clean pinfall on Benoit after the RKO. At 24 years and 4 months, he would trail only Lou Thesz, Kerry Von Erich and perhaps Danno O’Mahoney (who is believed to have been 22 when he won the title in 1935) as the youngest major world champion in history. Orton shook hands with Benoit after the match, and broke down, clearly turning himself face, and even did a few Rock mannerisms since the company has decided to use him to try and replicate Rock. There were a ton of pro-Orton signs, which, of course, is because in 2004, people are going to get behind the people who are successful, no matter what the means, and that means Evolution. HHH always comes out on top (he may have lost to Benoit, but who is the biggest star on TV?). Orton has been pushed as winning all his matches and as the next superstar.
And portions of Meltzer’s review of the match itself:
Benoit hit five German suplexes and went up for a diving head-butt. Orton got his foot up and Benoit crashed into it. It looked great. Orton’s mouth was busted by this point. Benoit went for a crossface, but Orton escaped, and hit the RKO out of nowhere, and got the pin. Lots of fans were rooting for Orton, apparently wanting to see a title change, and there was a big pop for the three. Benoit left, but then turned around, got back in the ring and told Orton to “Be a man” and shake his hand. Orton shook his hand, and did a total face reaction, crying as he held the belt.
2007: John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Heavyweight Championship
Meltzer: ****
Observer Readers: 93% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 7.65
Again, this was a plain choice for the best match on the show. (Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero got the other 7% of Observer readers’ votes.) It helped that the semi-main event—Batista defeating the Great Khali vs. disqualification—was a stinker, getting a -*1/2 rating from Meltzer.
Speaking of Big Dave, here’s part of his review of the Cena-Orton matchup:
The crowd was split, but live was told it came across about 75% pro-Orton. Started slow with Orton holding a headlock for a long time. But it was easily the best match on the show. … Cena’s offense like his punches looked bad a few times, but he was strong down the stretch. Cena had Orton up for the FU, but Orton threw elbows to the head and escaped, and then hit a DDT. Cena missed a charge and went over the top rope. … Orton had Cena up for the superplex, but Cena blocked it and shoved him off the ropes. Cena delivered a legdrop off the top rope. He tried the FU, but Orton grabbed the top rope and ended up snapping Cena’s neck on the ropes. Orton missed his field goal kick and Cena went for the STFU. Orton crawled to right near the ropes and barely got the break. Orton came back and finally hit the RKO, but started selling his knee, so he was late on the cover and Cena kicked out. Cena then hit the FU and scored the three count.
2011: Randy Orton vs. Christian in a No Holds Barred match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Meltzer: ****
Observer Readers: 86% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 8.86
Looking back, the Orton-Christian feud is something of a forgotten classic. In addition to this show, they also had Meltzer’s highest star rating at Over the Limit in May and Capitol Punishment in June. They also got a ***3/4 rating at Money in the Bank in July, but finished second that night behind the CM Punk-John Cena match after the pipe bomb promo. Punk and Cena also wrestled at SummerSlam, having the only other match that got “best of the night” votes from Observer readers.
From Meltzer’s review:
If you’re keeping track, this make nine WWE or world titles that Orton has won. At the beginning of the match, Christian introduced Edge. He’s lost a lot of weight and has shorter hair, looking like a cross between Chris Jericho and Larry Sweeney. He got a huge reaction, like you would expect, biggest on the show thus far.
[Editor’s note: this was a few months after Edge had retired with a neck injury. He would not wrestle again until the Royal Rumble in 2020.]
Edge first did an interview and said that he would never be cleared to compete again, but he was okay with his career ending because he thought he was passing the torch to his best friend, and was so happy Christian won the title. He said nobody deserved the title more than him. Then Edge turned on him, saying he didn’t think it was fair Teddy Long made him defend it right away, but said since that time Christian has turned into a whiner and a crybaby. … He actually insinuated Christian had become boring, and since this was kind of a hardcore crowd that liked Christian, they turned on Edge when he gave that line. … Edge then walked out, so Christian’s insurance policy was gone. … Orton teased the RKO on the Spanish announcers table, but Christian escaped and grabbed his belt and just in the stands like he was running away. Orton jumped in the stands and they brawled in the stands. Christian had such a big lead that he had to have come to almost a complete stop for Orton to catch him. … Orton came back with a middle rope superplex onto a table laying flat on the ground, but Christian kicked out. The table wasn’t supposed to break, but it did. It was supposed to be used for a spot, but whatever the planned spot was, the table wouldn’t stand up and they didn’t have a backup table. So instead of putting the table up, Orton had to put the table up leaning on the turnbuckles in the corner. Christian went for a spear but Orton leapfrogged him. … Christian then tried an RKO on Orton through the Spanish table, but Orton blocked it and hit his own RKO. You could see they had really loosened the table after the table not breaking a few months ago. So this one fell apart with ease. This led to “This is awesome” chants. Christian came back with a killswitch in the middle for a near fall. … Christian spit in Orton’s face, and that’s no fun at all. … Christian came back and hit Orton with a kendo stick shot and climbed to the top. He came off the top into an RKO right on the ring steps that had been brought into the ring, for the pin. Christian sold it big and officials had to help him out of the ring. This felt like a feud blow-off, but with Hell in a Cell in October, I think they may bring it back then. Either that, or you’ve got Orton vs. Henry in a Hell in a Cell match.
[Editor’s Note: It was in fact Orton vs. Henry at Hell in a Cell, with Christian losing to Sheamus in the opener.]
2020: Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship
Meltzer: ****1/4
Observer Readers: 54% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 7.76
Yes, we opened with Chris Benoit, and we’re closing with the pandemic, as this article turned out to be a lot more depressing than intended. None of that, of course, is Orton’s fault. But the empty arena environment (WWE’s ThunderDome, with virtual fans on screens surrounding the ring, debuted the next night) made things difficult to evaluate. Three other matches—Asuka’s two matches against Sasha Banks and Bayley, plus Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio—got votes as best of the night from Observer readers. In fact, Cagematch users ranked the Asuka-Banks match as the best of the night at 7.89.
Here’s part of what Meltzer wrote about SummerSlam as a whole:
[SummerSlam] saw them use a coordinator who would direct the fans to react. When Randy Orton came out, fans were told to boo. These were contrived reactions, even worse than the wrestlers as fans, because it was mostly the piped in noise that didn’t relate to matches, with some coordinated cheers and boos and chants that were loud, but clearly not organic. … It was actually similar to the old WCW tapings in the 90s at Disneyworld in Orlando where they used tourists as crowds and held up signs to cheer and boo, creating a fake crowd reaction atmosphere and as Brian Pillman would always note, taught all the young guys not to be able to work since they couldn’t sync what they were doing to crowd reactions and learning the most important thing about in-ring.
And the match itself:
This was the first time McIntyre really felt like a world champion with his ring entrance. Orton has dropped noticeable weight. Orton slammed him into the announcers table and post, and did the back suplex on the announcers table. He did a second one and suplexed him off the table to the floor. McIntyre was cut between the eyes hardway. … Orton threw down the ref, which is kind of a stupid spot to do and not have a DQ, and then ripped McIntyre’s eyes. What was brilliant is with McIntyre already accidentally cut in doing so he moved the blood from the cut to around the left eye so it made it look like the eye rake was legit. … McIntyre went for a superplex but Orton head-butted him legit. It was hard enough that Orton split his own head open. With a history of concussions, particularly after that insane [Brock] Lesnar beating, doing a head-butt so hard you split your head open is a lot more risky than high flying moves as brain damage is a look worse than shoulder or knee damage. … McIntyre head-butted him back, which made noise but didn’t result in anyone’s head being split open, and clotheslined Orton over the top rope. Orton used a draping DDT and went for the punt but McIntyre caught him and power bombed him. McIntyre missed a Claymore kick, Orton went for the RKO, and McIntyre ducked it and hit a backslide for the pin. This was a great match.
Tune in later today to see the wrestler who was tied with Orton in fifth place in our countdown.
