Randy Orton’s voices could become Cody Rhodes’ nightmare

We’re coming up on a few weeks from WrestleMania, and with each passing episode of Smackdown the voices seem to be getting louder in the mind of Randy Orton. What he’s made clear though in his promos is that these aren’t just the old Viper-y voices that spoke to him once upon time. These aren’t just the same ones who told him it was OK to punt literally anyone in the head, be they male, female, child or grandparent. He’s made it very clear that someone else is in his ear.

Naturally we’re left to ask who that is, and on the surface there are only a few legitimate options. But once you really start thinking about it the Rhodes and Orton families have quite the shared history. They have common alliances, common enemies, and above all decades of going head-to-head back in the old territory days.

Before we start talking possibilities, I think there are some really oddball potential options, ones that are possible but not realistic. There are also some that would be from left field, and obvious ones that range from “not happening,” to “yeah, that makes sense. Cool,” to “wow, you really went with the most obvious choice, eh?”

So, before this becomes woefully outdated, let’s dive into some potential Viper Whisperers. Keep in mind too that Orton has gone out of his way to tweet a line from Cody’s own theme about there being more than one Royal Family in professional wrestling.

Ted Dibiase Jr.

Let’s get the unlikely ones out of the way.

For those who remember, Dibiase was a member of Orton and Rhodes’ stable Legacy nearly 20 years ago. They ran together as a trio and held some championships together, notably with Rhodes and Dibiase helping Orton win the world championship on more than one occasion.  The group would inevitably break down and fall apart with the members feuding with each other off and on from early 2010 onward. This would be a neat little thing to happen for longtime fans, but realistically if not for his family’s run-ins with the law his name would otherwise be more forgotten than it already is, if not for the connection to his father. The reality is though that Dibiase has not worked for WWE since 2013, took indie dates until 2017, and formally retired in 2020. And if we’re being honest, of all the possibilities I can think of, this would have the least short-term impact, never mind mid- to long-term impacts. It’s not wholly absurd though. I just think this has the least value to the story and for fans despite his connection to them both. However, the fact he’s a member of a wrestling family, and one who oddly fits the bill as an underappreciated family in the history of wrestling mirrors the impetus for why Rhodes’s theme was written how it was in the first place. That alone needs to give you pause to consider it.

Chris Jericho

File this one under “left field.” As I say this, let’s be clear that his contract status with AEW is not exactly clear, so this might not even be a realistic option worth considering. However, given his murky contract status it’s worth at least talking about considering Jericho’s past with both. We know that Jericho and Orton are friends, and then obviously Jericho and Rhodes have also known each other for years and then obviously in AEW they ran the match to disallow Rhodes from ever challenging for the AEW championship again. The issue I have here, other than it being a left-field longshot, is narratively it doesn’t make a lot of sense based on their past histories. Nor does it fill the criteria of “wrestling royalty” necessarily. It isn’t as though they haven’t wrestled each other, it’s more so the fact we don’t know what his situation is with AEW, and how he fits with them long term. It would be a surprise to see him, but once the luster wears off I don’t know how much he adds to the potential feud. A shocker moment for sure, but less worthwhile than Dibiase if we’re only considering the characters isolated within this story.

HHH

I don’t see the value in spending a lot of time on this one because I think we can agree that although Dibiase would be a workable but unideal choice, he would be a better choice than HHH. First and foremost, while he does have history with both, I don’t think he’s at a point where stepping back in front of the camera in a narrative capacity is something he can or wants to do. I just don’t see him inserting himself into their story because it would detract from what Rhodes and Orton can accomplish on their own. Again, I don’t want to totally write this off, but if you consider HHH’s lack of storyline involvement on-camera since he took over creatively (aside from quick on-camera appearances), I just don’t see it happening. Now, that all in consideration… I think we need to at least ask ourselves after Raw on Monday whether Stephanie McMahon was in the ring to give Cody Rhodes tough love, or was she there to manipulate him as at least a proxy for the voices in Randy’s ear.

Ric Flair

I think this is the most obvious choice given his history with both Cody and Randy, and above that, his histories with their fathers ties it all together. In the 1970s and 1980s Flair wrestled both their fathers, obviously Dusty for the NWA title, and Orton following the Cowboy’s double cross of him to keep Harley Race on top. They too had a series of matches from 1983-84. Obviously we also remember his role in Evolution when Randy was coming up, and his continued mentorship as the years went on. I think this one’s a quick win even at Flair’s age. He needn’t do much physically, even though he’ll probably want to, but while his history with their fathers provides context for their shared history, he clearly has more skin in the game for the younger Orton than Cody. It might not make all the sense in the world since Orton turned on Flair a few years back, but I think we can agree that was moderately forgettable, and secondly that Flair’s history with Dusty is far more storied and therefore it’s in his nature to want to screw over his son. I think this one lines up best, and it really is a matter of whatever his contract was with AEW still being in play. I think if we just look plainly at what’s likely and set aside the left field options like Jericho or even Stephanie McMahon, Flair is the fit because of his role in shaping Orton at his youngest point. He’s also gone on record as always speaking highly of him, and preferring that he break Flair’s world title record that John Cena shattered last year. Take all that, and couple it against his history with the Rhodes family. This just feels the most likely.

‘Cowboy’ Bob Orton

Alright, now while Flair seems the most likely, I can’t be the only who’s thought of this, right? Theirs is less steeped in history, but the Ortons and Rhodes’ rivalries go back to the 70s and 80s as well. It’s also much more cut and dried versus Flair being so central to both his feuds with the elder Orton and Rhodes, and his connection to the present with Randy and Cody. The old cowboy mostly only needs to watch his son’s back, which is a backup-type role his career embraced after a point between working with Race or Roddy Piper to fend off and antagonize Flair and Hulk Hogan respectively in the 1980s. The primary reason to consider this seriously though is that if not Flair, this wouldn’t be the first time Bob Orton has stood beside his son. Before being released in 2006 during his last full time stint with WWE, he spent most of 2005 and early 2006 working with Randy as backup. He was with him most of the 2005 calendar year as Randy feuded with the Undertaker leading into WrestleMania and through their subsequent rematches to close the year.

Considering that on its own is worth it, but if we truly dive back into Orton’s tweet about Royal Families, the impetus for that in Rhodes’s Downstait theme is to say that historically when we talk about wrestling families, you’d mostly only hear of the usual suspects. The McMahons obviously. After that though you have the Flairs, the Harts, the Anoa’i family and so on, but you’d always hear about others far less even though WWE spent years trumpeting the background of anyone who was at least a second generation star whether they were exceptional like Randy or Cody or were…. frankly…. Shawn Stasiak. The point though is that as the business has developed it’s become a universal family business for so many individuals who lived and breathed wrestling, raised families who fell in love with it and raised children who got involved. That’s all true here for Orton as a third generation star, and for Rhodes whose father and brother are both entrenched in wrestling history.

The Ortons need to be considered a Royal Family as well if we treated “Kingdom” as a gospel of respect for the people who paved their way in wrestling. Bob emerging after all this time, aside from the odd appearances post-2006 over the years, might not be the most attractive option, but it’s the easier and most sensible one. This is all just speculative top to bottom, but if I’m being honest this is the one I’m hoping for. Flair is fine, and presuming the stories are executed, any other option would be satisfactory. But deep down, what I want to see after a hard fought match is for Bob to level Cody with the cast on his “broken arm.” This just makes the entire story click into place to set off a potential 15th world title reign for Randy Orton.