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Sometimes when a wrestler turns heel, it can be hard to convince fans to boo them based on them being a babyface for quite a while, or even due to a lack of heel tendencies. A basic promo insulting the fans or cheating in matches doesn’t always work. At times though, just a singular, decisive moment can do the job, and that was the case back in 2005. Randy Orton had been a babyface since the previous year when he climbed the ranks to become the youngest ever World Heavyweight Champion and proceeded to get attacked and ambushed by the members of his own stablemates in Evolution, but in March of 2005 he managed to become a bad guy once again within just one second.
Randy Orton Wasn't Working Out As A Babyface
Randy Orton’s babyface turn in 2004 was a huge moment initially, with the turn from Evolution going down as one of the most memorable segments of the era. The fans naturally rallied alongside Orton during his World Heavyweight Championship reign and feud against Triple H, but after a little while things just weren’t working out for him as a good guy. He lost the belt to Triple H and failed to really breakout properly as a babyface, leaving him in a state of limbo as 2005 began.
To get him back on track, he challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania, but after his months of bad booking, he didn’t feel like a major enough challenger, particularly as a face. The spotlight was shone on The Undertaker’s undefeated streak, but this made a good guy version of Orton feel even less likely of a candidate to end it. That is where his RKO on Stacy Keibler changed everything for the trajectory of his career and his Road to WrestleMania 21 for a match against The Undertaker.
Randy Orton Attacked Stacy Keibler Ahead Of A WrestleMania Match With The Undertaker
Stacey Keibler was never a top level performer in WWE, but she did retain a decent level of support from fans. Around the start of 2005, she entered a relationship with Orton, with the likely hope that it would give them something more to do on-screen. However, in the lead-up to WrestleMania, Orton was given some advice by legend “Superstar” Billy Graham, who implied that Orton’s pandering to the crowd, his relationship, and other things like that, were distracting him from getting to the next level, and he needed to go to another place.
Orton took this advice, challenging The Undertaker. Not long later, he would bring Keibler out to the ring and cut a promo alongside her. He gave her a kiss in the ring and stated that he had a message to deliver to all those who were doubting him. He proceeded to hit Keibler with an RKO, stunning the audience with his attack. This was to prove that he was willing to go the extra mile and be as vicious as he needed to be in order to defeat his WrestleMania opponent. Although Orton’s attitude had been developing by the week, this was the moment where fans knew that he had firmly gone to the dark side, with this attack securing his heel turn without a shadow of a doubt.
From there, Orton’s career was on the up. Even though he would lose to The Undertaker at WrestleMania, he felt like a major heel in WWE. Further rematches against The Undertaker helped to make him feel as though he was on a similar level, and he would take all that experience and momentum to eventually become the defined number one heel in WWE. All that began with a single RKO on Stacy Keibler. The rest is history.