Heyman Calls Orton The Most Underutilized Talent In Wrestling

[JohnCenaFan28]

Paul Heyman's latest column for the UK Sun is now online. This week, Heyman lists the top five talents he feels are the most underrated and underutilized in professional wrestling.

5. Tito Ortiz: "Tito is finishing up his UFC contract this weekend. What does he do next? Wear out his name in MMA, or capitalize on his love for pro wrestling and exploit his larger than life personality by joining WWE or TNA? And remember, where Tito goes, so goes Jenna Jameson, the best self-promoter in show business today. "

4. Beth Phoenix: "It doesn't matter that she's already been WWE women’s champion, the audience hasn't even had a taste of what this phenomenal athlete is capable of."

3. James Mitchell: "The best backstage promo artist in the business, bar none. A brilliant spokesman who can articulate the merits of the opponent without selling his own act short."

2. The entire TNA roster: "No long term concepts + bad television writing + zero marketing strategy = hard working talents whose efforts are wasted on a show that has not grown the audience whatsoever despite the tens of millions of dollars sunken into it."

1. Randy Orton: "When does Orton get to make you hate him so badly, you're willing to pay to see him get beat, or at least beaten up?"

Source: Wrestlezone

[Ill Will]

5. How can Ortiz be one of the talents that are "the most underrated and underutilized in professional wrestling" when he's not IN professional wrestling? Yes, his contract is almost up with UFC, but that doesn't preemptively mean he's in professional wrestling. He hasn't had the chance to be underutilized yet.

4. So what else is WWE supposed to do? Beth has been in the women's title picture since she came to RAW. She has a match just about every week on RAW. She already had a title run, but she's still feuding over it with two credible opponents in Mickie James and Melina. Seriously, what else does Heyman want WWE to do? Beth Phoenix is the opposite of underutilized and underrated.

3. I disagree that Mitchell is "the best backstage promo artist in the business, bar none". He's entertaining, but he's not the "best". Anyway, he was Abyss's voice for like 3 years before TNA started the saga that unfolded of him being Abyss's father. Then he became the voice of his other "son" Judas Mesias. After the Abyss/Mesias feud ended, there wasn't really much else for Mitchell to do. Abyss is back now, and I would assume we would see Mitchell again sometime soon. I think Heyman is crying wolf again.

2. This one didn't make any sense to me. For one, Heyman is just dead wrong about TNA's audience not growing. It has grown almost exponentially since the weekly PPV days. As far as Heyman's conceptual arithmetic, the same things can be said about WWE. That still doesn't support the claim that the "entire roster" is underutilized.

1. Just Bullshit. Naturally, I disagree and I think Orton is overrated, but come on, how can anyone possibly claim that he's been underutilized? He's been in RAW's main event scene for a good fraction of his short career. As if the TNA comment wasn't bad enough, Heyman really went off the deep end with this one.

and btw, this article talks about TNA just as much as it talks about WWE, but as usual, anything that has even the slightest link to WWE gets posted in this section.

[legolas4792]

5. Completely agree he could be huge in pro wrestling even though he is not in it yet

4. quality time of her they need to use every minute they display her to the fullest

3. Im not sure what the hell they are using mitchell for in tna but he should be on tv

2. As ill will said it has increased since the beginning but since they started using big bucks to get big names the ratings have barely increased

1. Orton is basically displayed as a guy who will get the non title wins and be dominate but still lose like a chump to people like triple h

[Ill Will]

5. Completely agree he could be huge in pro wrestling even though he is not in it yet...were you agreeing with me or Heyman? I wasn't saying that he won't be a big asset to TNA in the future, but to call him "underutilized" right now is just stupid. He hasn't had the chance to be underutilized. He's not a pro wrestler.

That's like saying that Tom Brady is underutilized as a baseball player.


4. quality time of her they need to use every minute they display her to the fullest???

What exactly has WWE done wrong in their handling of Beth Phoenix's career? How could they have possibly used her better? They pushed her, gave her the title almost immediately after she got to RAW, and they've billed her as the "most dominant Diva the WWE has ever seen". Seriously, please tell me how they haven't "displayed her to her fullest". What would you have done differently?


3. Im not sure what the hell they are using mitchell for in tna but he should be on tv... why, just so you can see him? Since Abyss took off his mask and "committed" himself, there's been no relevant storyline for Mitchell. With both Abyss and Judas Mesias gone, what was TNA supposed to have been doing with Mitchell? They can't just instantaneously give him a new gimmick and throw him into a new storyline just to keep him on TV.


2. As ill will said it has increased since the beginning but since they started using big bucks to get big names the ratings have barely increasedI wasn't arguing that, but that's definitely not the way Paul Heyman said it. He just said that the audience has "not grown whatsoever". That seemed pretty inclusive to me.

And like I said, how does that suggest that the entire roster has been underutilized? New talent that TNA has spent money on is one thing, but Heyman cited "The entire TNA roster" as being underutilized. That's just ridiculous. I still don't see the connection between wrestlers being underrated/underutilized, and TV ratings. To me it seems like this act of correlating two completely different things was just Heyman's way of baselessly badmouthing TNA.


1. Orton is basically displayed as a guy who will get the non title wins and be dominate but still lose like a chump to people like triple h
HHH is literally the top of the food chain in WWE. How does losing to him make Orton look like a chump? (and I'm truly being unbiased here because it's well-documented that I hate Orton. Point in fact: I think he looks like a chump all by himself) Simply being in main events with HHH gives Orton high status. WWE is treating him very un-chump-like IMO.

Are you and Paul E. forgetting that Orton just had a WWE title run that lasted nearly 6 months? Are you also forgetting that he's been in the title scene since July? You're acting as if anything short of him eternally holding the title makes him "underutilized".