Last month saw the eventual breakup of Legacy, Randy Orton, Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes have been working together for a year and a half. But when we look at the status of each of this faction’s members before and after, it seems like not one of them gained anything from being in this group, and so the question is, what was the point?
Before Legacy, Randy Orton was a top heel and a multi-times world champion. He main evented pay per view events and feuded with Triple H and John Cena. Before Legacy, Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase were a mid card tag team. Dibiase’s debut led many people to predict he’s on the fast track to the main event.
And now? The only differences are that Orton is going through a face turn and Dibiase is no where near the main event. But why is that? Why did Legacy fail so miserably?
The answer is simple. Legacy was never a true stable. It was Randy Orton and his two lackeys. During the entire run of Evolution Rhodes and Dibiase got only one chance to stand on their own and do more than just attack Orton’s opponent of the month. That was during their feud with DX in 2009. The only problem is that during this feud Legacy was non-existent. Orton was doing his own thing with Cena at the time and Legacy did not operate as a stable. Of course, it did not help that DX got the upper hand. After they were done with DX, they went back to being Orton’s henchmen. Even when Legacy finally blew up, it was Orton who pulled the trigger and outsmarted the other two. Since then it appears that WWE knows that they screwed things up so they rushed through both singles matches and the anticipated handicapped match on free TV, leading to a triple threat match at Wrestlemania.
The failure of Legacy is even greater when we consider that Randy Orton himself grew into his own as a member of arguably the greatest stable of the past decade, Evolution. When Evolution was first formed, Randy Orton and Dave Batista were at the same status as Rhodes and Dibiase before Legacy, or even lower. At first they were also nothing but henchmen for Triple H. But then they (pardon the pun) evolved. Orton the “legend killer†became, in my eyes, the last great Intercontinental Champion. Hos feud with Mick Foley positioned him as a huge singles star. Batista grew out of the muscleman role into a savvy and smart wrestler. When each of them left Evolution, in different circumstances of course, they were legitimate world champions. Sure, Orton was hampered by the terrible face turn, but when he won the title at Summerslam 2004, the crowd accepted him as world champion.
Everything that worked so well in Evolution, did not work at all with Legacy. Evolution was a cohesive unit, Legacy was Orton and the other two. Evolution was a dominant and threatening force, Legacy was never perceived as a real threat. Evolution took two lower-mid card guys and turned them to main event superstars, Legacy took two lower-mid card guys and turned them into mid card guys.
Still, perhaps one good thing came out of Legacy. For the first time it seems like the fans are accepting Randy Orton as a face. But if that’s all that came out of Legacy, then what was the point?
