The match between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton at SummerSlam has elicited a plethora of emotions among the fans. What promised to be a great SummerSlam went down the drain of boos from the Brooklyn crowd after a disappointing end to it. Fans took to social media to voice out their displeasure by decrying not only the match but the entire Pay-Per-View.
Brock Lesnar decimated Randy Orton so much that it almost looked like a squash match. Having a talented performer like Randy Orton squashed has not gone well with the majority of the WWE fans who were expecting great things from the match. Though Brock Lesnar assimilated the intended heat, it was the kind of heat that is better not earned.
Trending
Here are the five things that were innately wrong with the match:
New Champs in WWE! More RIGHT HERE
#5 The lazy ending
First and foremost let's get the widely known reason out of the way. The lazy ending. While WWE expected to eat up the strong performance put up by Brock Lesnar, they miscalculated the negative backlash that would elicit from such a dismal ending. The no contest ending between Reigns and Rusev had already irked the fans and a similar end to the PPV didn’t sit well with the crowd.
One might argue that Lesnar picked up a definitive win via TKO. But, the problem there is that TKO is not a legitimate end to a wrestling match. Seriously. when has being knocked out of the consciousness ended a match in WWE. If TKO had to be the case, there wouldn’t be any high spots which made Shane McMahon, Jeff Hardy, The Undertaker and lot of other wrestlers famous.
It stands to reason to believe that WWE expected the crowd to go nuts with Brock legitimately opening up Orton. But if anyone had wanted to see such a thing, they would have watched an MMA fight instead of wrestling. The other problem with this lazy ending is that the WWE has booked themselves into a corner. Apart from Goldberg, there couldn’t be anyone who can face Brock at WrestleMania and make us believe that he has a chance.
#4 The place of the match on the card
Now, looking apart from the lazy ending to the match, the major problem one faces when digesting such a debacle is the place of the match on the card. If WWE had decided to go with such an ending, I don’t know what prompted them to place it as the main event. Surely there were other better options, Balor – Rollins or Styles – Cena could have easily main-evented.
One can only wonder what might be the reaction to the match if it hasn’t been at the end of a card that boasted great matches in the form of Banks – Charlotte, Balor – Rollins and Cena – Styles. The placing of the match immediately after another No Finish didn’t help it either.
If only fans had time to digest the dismal ending to the match and enjoy past the misguided booking, there could have been a positive response to the PPV.
#3 The punt kick
Now to the match in itself. Orton tried to take the fight to Lesnar and at one point had Lesnar reeling on the mat after the second RKO. Then Orton tried to switch gears by trying to punt Brock Lesnar only to be caught in a devastating F5.
Wait a minute here, hasn’t WWE banned the punt kick? That would have been an obvious disqualification if one cares to remember. Orton had Lesnar reeling and why would he throw it away by trying the punt kick. Couldn’t he have delivered another RKO and went for the cover?
No easy answers here.
#2 No Count outs/No Disqualifications
Talking about disqualifications, the most criminal thing about the match was that there was no count outs or disqualifications at all in the match. Orton and Lesnar were loitering outside the ring and working some dangerous moves nevertheless, but the strange part was that the referee was following them like a puppy. Shouldn’t he get in the ring and try to count them out?
If that is not enough to make one wince at the lazy refereeing, Lesnar seemed to not take any of the referee’s instructions seriously. It is understandable that when you are Lesnar no one dares to order you around, but when you are working a match at least try to keep the semblance of it. Even though the referee didn’t have the testicular fortitude to warn Lesnar, I wonder why he didn’t disqualify Lesnar for ignoring his instructions.
Honestly, for a second before Lesnar was announced the winner by TKO, I thought the referee is going to disqualify him. Lesnar’s actions were that abhorrent.
#1 Lack of surprise
When you build up something huge and not follow through it there is bound to be some disappointment.
There were numerous rumours and indications heading towards SummerSlam about a possible interference in the Lesnar – Orton match. WWE even planted some seeds in the minds of the fans regarding it going as far as to make Bray and Orton have a staredown. No to mention the big rumour of Goldberg making a surprise appearance and confronting Lesnar.
After building up such expectations WWE went ahead with some lazy booking to make Lesnar look strong (which he didn’t need it by the way) and actually expected the fans to be happy with such a dismal ending to the show. It shows how out of tune the WWE Creative is when it comes to reading fans mind.
The match had hardly any spots that were surprising or even exhilarating to the audience. It was a typical squash match, only that the wrestler being squashed is a top tier Superstar. This may be the biggest mistake that the WWE has committed with Lesnar – Orton match.
Let’s hope that the WWE learns from its mistake this time and rectify them in the upcoming matches concerning Lesnar. In short words, if this carries on even the drawing power of Brock Lesnar may not help the WWE to make the fans invest in any of his matches. Let’s hope that they don’t make the biggest draw in the history of WWE as an uninteresting one.
