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Here we are at the end of another week in WWE so it is time to evaluate who is the WWE Wrestler of the Week. This week includes SmackDown from January 4th and Raw from January 7th. Despite the news about this Friday’s SmackDown, Alberto Del Rio’s win does not qualify for this week’s winner.

This week’s winner recently returned to action after injury winning a singles and tag team match on Raw and SmackDown, respectively. He did not have a match during Main Event this week. Despite injuries and suspensions, this week’s winner has come back hoping to win the Royal Rumble. Your winner this week is none other than the Viper, Randy Orton.

Randy Orton began the week on SmackDown opening the show and announcing that he will be one of the 30 participants in the Royal Rumble this year. The declaration brought out Sheamus who also will be entering the rumble. Big Show and Antonio Cesaro made their way to ringside to argue with the two babyfaces. Booker T interrupted and made a tag team match for the main event of the night.

At the end of the match, Sheamus was about to hit Cesaro with the Brogue Kick, but Orton slipped in and delivered an RKO. Sheamus pinned Cesaro for the win as he and Orton stared down one another. WWE is certainly teasing a feud between Sheamus and Randy Orton, but I will get to that later.

On Raw, Randy Orton had the honor of facing 3MB member Heath Slater is an expected, boring squash match. It is interesting to note that Sheamus also ended up facing a 3MB member, Jinder Mahal, later in the night. This continues the talk of WWE planning something with Sheamus and Randy Orton.

There has been talk of Sheamus and Randy Orton possibly facing one another at WrestleMania 29. The match could end up being for the World Heavyweight Championship. Although I would not have a problem with this match, it should not be for the World Heavyweight Championship. Now that Del Rio is champion, the title picture is getting very crowded. With Dolph Ziggler expected to cash in at some point and Big Show earning a rematch as early as Royal Rumble, I don’t see how Sheamus and Orton can take over that scene.

The other issue that exists with the Sheamus-Randy Orton situation is that both are babyfaces right now. Older WWE fans have been waiting for Orton to turn heel again and even the Viper would prefer that way, but it has yet to happen. Perhaps his feud with Sheamus will ultimately lead to a heel turn. If WWE wanted to put the title on a babyface and have Sheamus versus Orton for the title at WrestleMania, they could have just put the belt on Sheamus instead of Del Rio, but that conversation is for another day.

Randy Orton has had his issues with WWE as of late. He was arguably in the doghouse for quite a while, losing many matches. He lost cleanly in number one contender matches two months in a row last year. However, this week was different. This week Randy Orton was able to defeat 3MB in addition to being successful in a tag team match against then-World Heavyweight Champion Big Show and United States Champion Antonio Cesaro. Perhaps this is the start to a great 2013 for WWE’s Apex Predator, Randy Orton.

Sincerely,
Seth

Seth M. Guttenplan is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report andhost of OH YOU DIDN’T KNOW!? PWPRadio’s weekly radio show covering all wrestling news and rumors. To read more from Seth follow him on twitter (@sethgutt) and check out guttwrenchpowerblog.com.

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