Well, Randy Orton actually came in pretty humbly and within the year worked up to a joking match against Taker for the belt (again I emphasize joking) and got killed by Brock once. Orton in 03 joined Evolution and had an IC title reign that solo-wise has eclipsed everything Reigns has done so far in quality with his legend killer run showing glimpses of his now great, smooth ring talent and charisma (two things Reigns has yet to show he has). If we wanna drag it out to 04, Orton worked a nice little program with Jack and had a TREMENDOUS match at Backlash that many including myself consider the best of his career, later won the world title from Benoit in another tremendous match, then had a nice breaking with HHH. I add if we wanna compare Reigns to Orton from a year one Shield/Evo standpoint that Orton like everyone on Raw was behind HHH in "the HHH show", and while it is debatable I'd say given the commentary that Batista was billed over Orton, even though Orton broke out first. while the Shield started pretty equally, eventually, Reigns became the far and away focal point to where at the end with Evolution and the Punk "so you think you are the leader" run, Reigns was clearly billed at the top by a wide margin.
Orton his first year certainly didn't break the royal rumble record, nearly solo a survivor series team, take out three former world champions, beat the hottest heel in the company squeaky clean nor be a fixture of the world title scene. When Orton started receiving real top guy accolades in 04, Orton had showed a whole lot of promise and had done great work. Reigns solo has only had a few decent matches, in my opinion no "good" solo matches, hasn't shown much entertainment value beyond an impactful, limited moveset and some intensity, nor has Reigns even had one good program or promo, yet Reigns is going to be slotted to win a royal rumble and be WH champ over one of the most accomplished wrestlers all time in Cena or a monster in Brock. Remember, by the time the Orton/Taker feud rolled around, Orton had lightyears on current Reigns in terms of in ring ability and had a better resume in terms of entertainment value. Hell, you wanna compare Reigns now to Orton 03 in terms of ability, I will still give Orton the edge. I'm not "hating" on Reigns, I want him to succeed, but what I state shouldn't be disputed.
Funny though, I've preached for months that Reigns is disadvantaged due to a lack of fundamentally solid ring veterans of the WWE style to teach Reigns and help him along, Orton had a tremendous advantage in that on his way to the top before the belt, he got to learn first hand from one of the greatest heels all time in Flar, a marquee talent in HHH, worked Taker in a match very early on, worked a stint with one of the greatest in ring showmen/performers in HBK, had interaction with so many legends, worked extensively with one of the businesses' all time best all around talents in Foley as well. Orton was brought up the way a guy with tremendous potential should be and was lucky to come up in his time.