Payback 2020: 5 reasons why WWE allowed Keith Lee to defeat Randy Orton clean

#4 The defeat to Keith Lee doesn't affect Randy Orton in the long run

Pain.

Randy Orton losing to Keith Lee has no real long-term effect on him if you think about it. The Randy Orton-Keith Lee match happened in a rather impromptu PPV that happened just a week after SummerSlam - the second-most significant PPV of the calendar year.

There have been reports that WWE is so invested in completing the Orton-Edge trilogy next year that we could see Randy Orton becoming a 14-time World Champion, possibly defending the title against Edge at WrestleMania 37 (in what Dave Meltzer claimed was the originally planned main event at the SoFi stadium)

Even if that is the plan and Randy Orton is going to win the WWE Championship, a loss like this to Keith Lee will do nothing to derail any momentum that he had. WWE was smart in picking the PPV to write Drew McIntyre off. While some looked at this like a filler match (and it very well may have been) - it was one that served a purpose.