WWE Monday Night RAW 25th anniversary: Ranking the 25 biggest stars

11. Randy Orton

After debuting on SmackDown on April 25, 2002 (happy to say that I was in attendance that night), Randy Orton was drafted to Monday Night RAW that September and quickly became one of the most popular stars in WWE.

A shoulder injury sidelined him early on, but upon his return, he joined up with Triple H, Ric Flair and Batista as part of Evolution and he was off and running from there. He started his “Legend Killer” gimmick that saw him take out a plethora of WWE legends and had a nice run with the Intercontinental Championship before setting his sights even higher. At the 2004 edition of SummerSlam, Orton became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history at the age of 24 by defeating Chris Benoit, only to have his Evolution stablemates turn on him the following night on RAW as Triple H felt threatened by his early success.

Orton could never regain the title after losing it to Triple H and soon found himself in a program with The Undertaker. Orton was actually scheduled to be the man to end The Deadman’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but rumor has it that he didn’t feel right about it and agreed to take the loss. He moved to SmackDown soon after and became one of the most successful stars of Survivor Series, being the sole survivor of the traditional match on numerous occasions.

Orton returned to Monday nights in 2006 and had very entertaining feuds with Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan, who had returned for another one-off match at SummerSlam. He then joined up with Edge in Rated-RKO to win the tag titles and had a great program with DX. After splitting with Edge, he continued his “Legend Killer” persona in feuds with Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter and Dusty Rhodes before entering into his first big program with perhaps his greatest rival, John Cena.

Cena and Orton battled for the WWE Championship in the summer of 2007, and this is where Orton’s new and crazy attitude was born. He attacked John Cena’s father and started using the punt to the head, which would become one of his signatures. He feuded with Cena again in 2008 and started winning world titles left and right over the next few years. He’d feud with Cena again later in his career, as well as the likes of Daniel Bryan and Batista, and had a very memorable run with Bray Wyatt.

However, if I’m thinking of Randy Orton on RAW, I’m always thinking of the build to WrestleMania XXV. He was set to take on Triple H for the WWE Championship and got the entire McMahon family involved on the way. He punted Vince in the head. He punted Shane in the head. But perhaps his most memorable moment (and there’s been a lot) came when he DDT’d Stephanie while Triple H was handcuffed to the ropes and then kissed her as she lay unconscious. That’s some serious heel heat right there.

From the “Legend Killer” to Legacy to “The Viper” to RKO’s outta nowhere, Randy Orton has been a big player on Monday Night RAW for a long time, and although he’s now on the blue brand, we’ll likely see him back on Monday nights at least once more before he hangs up his boots.