The legendary career of Randy Orton has seen him take many different directions with his character. Orton had different versions of himself, from the Evolution run, to leading Legacy, to winning over a dozen world titles, and to now teaming with Matt Riddle. With such a long body of work, the 2005 character twist of Orton doubling down on the Legend Killer persona sometimes gets overlooked.

Orton might have done his best work as the 'Legend Killer' by making his character a bit more serious and feuding with top-tier names like The Undertaker. The heel work of Orton saw him tapping into something he never had to do before; no other top stars were cutting promos for him or taking part in his matches. This is why Orton’s 2005 heel run might have been the peak of his WWE run as a character.

Orton Proved He Could Succeed Without Evolution

The World Championship win and babyface turn for Randy Orton in 2004 is viewed as a great moment in his career, but it was a failure at the time. Orton lost the title after a month and became secondary to Triple H right as the feud started. The babyface character of Orton tanked, and fans didn’t invest in him as strongly as they did during the genesis of his heel “Legend Killer” persona.

Triple H Attacks Randy Orton

There was doubt about Orton living up to WWE’s expectations after transitioning into a less celebrated spot without Evolution. Many wrestlers would have never recovered and continued trending downward after such a high-profile slip. But Orton used the heel turn in early 2005 to completely rebuild his momentum.

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The "Legend Killer" moniker was pushed further when Orton challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania. Fans saw a more ruthless side of Orton, with him doing whatever was needed to gain an advantage. Orton doing it on his own without having Triple H or Ric Flair like he did during his time in Evolution made it more impressive that he was finding his own voice in wrestling.

Orton Was The First Real Threat To Undertaker's Streak

WrestleMania 21 was the first time WWE truly invested into making The Undertaker’s undefeated streak on the show part of the spectacle. To this point, WWE had only mentioned Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania in passing, but his opponents didn’t have any realistic chance of defeating him. But Randy Orton turning heel to feud with Undertaker made fans wonder if the time was coming.

No wrestling character was better suited to challenge Undertaker than Orton during his time as the legend killer. Orton’s first stint using that name saw him attacking or disrespecting names like Mick Foley, Sgt. Slaughter and Dusty Rhodes. The feud with Undertaker saw Orton display a darker, more ruthless side to put up a fight against the most unbeatable wrestler on the biggest stage.

Randy Orton Attacks Undertaker

Fans bought into the false finishes of Orton almost beating Undertaker at WrestleMania, but he fell short in a great match. Orton moved to the SmackDown brand in the draft to continue the feud against Undertaker for the latter half of 2005, a feud that continued to build momentum. The same fans who lost interest in Orton shortly into his babyface run as World Champion one year prior viewed him with credibility as a hated main event heel.

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Is The "Legend Killer" The Best Version Of Randy's Character?

The 2005 legend killer persona allowed Randy Orton to tap into all his best attributes. Orton was still egotistical and arrogant like his Evolution days, but he was now capable of brutally destroying WWE’s most intimidating figure. The Undertaker deserves credit for taking beat downs ranging from getting set on fire in a casket, to getting attacked with a car.

WWE placed Orton in the spotlight on the SmackDown brand by having him, once again, win as a sole survivor at Survivor Series 2005 in a huge Raw vs SmackDown match. Orton was on top of the world, and that continued when his feud with Undertaker culminated inside of the Hell in a Cell. The year ended with Undertaker winning the final match to win the rivalry, but Orton gained something more.

Randy Orton Casket Fire

This chapter of Orton’s career set him up to have a World Championship match the following WrestleMania against Rey Mysterio and Kurt Angle, but WWE’s inconsistent booking and Orton’s backstage attitude issues saw this momentum stalling. Orton had many other great runs as both a face and heel, but it was never this impressive.

WWE was unsure of if Orton was still going to be at the level of John Cena and Batista as the new faces of the company after he struggled in the babyface role. But Orton used his 2005 character shift to add more fire to the legend killer persona, and proved he deserved another main event shot during the most pivotal part of his remarkable career.