The rollercoaster ride that has been the Fiend/Orton/Bliss storyline continued this past Monday night. It was announced on Raw, to the confusion of some, that Alexa Bliss and Randy Orton will be squaring off this Sunday at Fastlane. This continues a truly bizarre tale that has been part of Raw programming since the night after Hell in a Cell last October.
After Orton had won the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell last year he appeared on Alexa Bliss’s talk show. Alexa had previously aligned herself with Wyatt/The Fiend, and considering the history between Wyatt and Orton, it was only natural that the Fiend made an appearance. After the Fiend appeared the following weeks consisted of Wyatt attacking Orton any chance he got. This culminated in Wyatt luring Orton into the Firefly funhouse but things did not go to plan for Wyatt. Orton trapped Wyatt in a wooden box and set it on fire. This did not have the desired effect as The Fiend soon emerged from the box and continued to bring the fight to Orton. This back and forth led to the TLC pay-per-view where Orton and the Fiend would face off in the first-ever Firefly Inferno Match.
When the Firefly Inferno Match was over fans were left wondering what the heck they just saw. The finish came with Orton lighting the Fiend on fire and, for all intents and purposes, burning him to death. This, naturally, had written the Fiend off of WWE programming ever since and Alexa Bliss has stepped in to continue the feud with Orton.
Since Alexa Bliss has stepped in as the main antagonist to Orton the feud has gone over to the ludicrous side of WWE’s storytelling. On WWE programming we have witnessed fireballs, terrible burn makeup, an evil Randy Orton, and some black goo that seems to pour out of people’s mouths every week. It has been an insane journey that WWE has taken us on over the past couple of months.
The fact that there have been no fans in attendance has allowed WWE to pull off a more cinematic element to this storyline. It is a good chance that things would be vastly different had they not been able to cut scenes together with the way that they have been. Unfortunately, these have not been accomplished very well and the angle has become more of a punchline in the IWC.
The only huge selling point during this feud has to be the excellent character work of Alexa Bliss. While yes the angle has been campy Alexa has taken her role as the demonic right hand of the Fiend and ran with it. She has legitimately come across as a creepy apostle and this will hopefully lead to a more engaging character in the future.
Now that we have gotten through the past few months of odd effects and angles we arrive at Fastlane this Sunday and the looming intergender match between Alexa Bliss and Randy Orton. When it was announced that these two would square off this Sunday there was a collective eyebrow raise from fans. As much as the WWE has been a mixed bag of nuts over the past year or so there is no way that they will go through with a clean match between the two. Will they?
If the WWE goes through with the match there is no reason why it will not be a squash match. As accomplished a wrestler as Bliss is she doesn’t have a chance against Orton in the ring. If WWE were to have him just run through her they would meet with a lot of backlash from fans and advocacy groups alike, so there has to be a screwy finish coming up.
For months now Alexa has been teasing the return of the Fiend and it appears that Orton and the Fiend are headed for a showdown at Wrestlemania. It would make sense to have the Fiend make his long-awaited return this Sunday. Will it happen though? Will the WWE go through with the match that no one wants to see? We are all going to have to tune into Fastlane this Sunday to see what happens.