This past week’s episode of Smackdown Live featured a backstage segment involving Randy Orton. The segment saw Orton hovering over a production assistant, forcing him to pull up footage of his recent assaults on Jeff Hardy. At the end of the segment, Orton teased that what he did to Hardy will pale in comparison to what he will do to his “next victim”.
I have a theory that I wanted to pass your guys way about Orton and his next feud. A reminder that this is only our speculation and not a rumor that is floating around. It should be taken for what it is, a fan theory.
When looking at the landscape of Smackdown Live, it is pretty obvious that there are not many babyfaces left on the roster. Orton recently defeated Jeff Hardy and their feud is presumably over. That really only leaves AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan as the top babyfaces on the blue brand.
My theory is that Randy Orton is going to attack Daniel Bryan at the WWE Super Show-Down event and cost him his match against the Miz. The Miz will win and will get a future WWE Championship match against AJ Styles over the next few months. This will also start a feud between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton for the next few months.
So, why would WWE do this?
I think this would make sense for a couple of reasons. The first is that it doesn’t give us a clean finish to Daniel Bryan vs The Miz. I think that feud will be going until Wrestlemania 35 and this is a way that WWE can avoid having either of them losing clean. Also, I think that the Miz is going to win the Title eventually from AJ Styles. The Miz winning at WWE Super Show-Down sets that feud into motion. Instead of the Miz cheating to win again, this sets us up for a fun feud between Orton and Bryan over the next few months. It also gives Bryan something to do as the Miz chases the WWE Championship.
I see this also having some long-term implications. After the Miz wins the WWE Championship, Daniel Bryan will win the Royal Rumble. This sets us up for Daniel Bryan vs The Miz at Wrestlemania 35 for the WWE Championship.
What do you think of my theory here? Who do you think Orton’s next victim will be?
On a related note, here are 12 big matches that we think could take place at Wrestlemania 35.