Randy Orton is a preternaturally gifted in-ring WWE performer, and thanks to him, the most hyped match headed into Wrestlemania 36 is between Edge and Orton--two aging guys from the Ruthless Aggression Era.

What Orton does--and what very few performers do consistently--is allow his character to inform every aspect of his performance. So many wrestlers rely on their mic work to define their allegiance. Meanwhile, their physical, non-verbal actions are decidedly neutral; you can't tell whether the person is a good guy or a bad guy by the way he or she moves. But with Orton, the performance is seamless and all-encompassing. It's in everything he does, from the way he walks to the way he hits the ropes to the way he pauses before launching into a signature move.

He has spent the majority of his career as a heel; traditionally, it's the more difficult role to play, but it's also the character type Orton is most comfortable with. He elaborated on his reasoning during a 2008 interview with the Herald Sun: