WWE Sixpack: Usos Soar, Sasha Banks Stumbles

Promo of the Week: Randy and the Rabbit, Smackdown

Randy Orton always comes across as the man of few words who lets his in-ring work do the talking. Nothing wrong with that (Roman Reigns: take notes).

But this caused some concern once it became evident RKO was about to uncork a potentially lengthy response to Bray Wyatt’s “man vs. predator” parable from earlier in the night. But wouldn’t you know? Orton pulled it off.

It was indeed a lengthy story, and if you’ve ever heard a snake story before, you knew where it was headed. But Orton’s slight, aloof detachment worked in his favor in eventually getting to the point. Maybe it proved so engaging because you kept waiting for Orton to stumble, and he never did. Still, it was an encouraging turn seeing that Bray isn’t the only one who could use the mic so casually in this match’s accelerated build-up.

This late in anyone’s career, you wonder what can be done to inspire an old dog to learn new tricks. We’re seeing a similar late-career renaissance with Chris Jericho and his continued involvement on the periphery of the main event picture the last year-plus. You have to think Orton being the one tasked as the talking combatant in the Orton-Lesnar build to SummerSlam helped spark his creative juices on the mic. Needing to raise his game to match Paul Heyman seems to have provided The Viper with a solid wave to coast on to Backlash.

Next: The Usos Win by Losing