The finish to the Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar match at WWE SummerSlam has been much debated since it went down on Sunday. Many fans have sighted it as one of the most brutal endings to WWE match in history, especially shocking on a PG rated show and the fact it has come to light that many of the elbows and punched that Lesnar delivered were not protected shots.
It felt so "off-script" that even ring veteran Chris Jericho questioned the beat down Lesnar was giving Orton, leading to an incident backstage with Lesnar.
It has pretty much been confirmed that Orton knew of the finish to match, although it has come to light that he may not have been fully aware the extent to which he would be busted open.
The Wrestling Observer reports that WWE officials planned to create an ending that would cause some confusion and blur the lines between scripted entertainment and reality. The overall idea was to make it seem like Lesnar was going against what was scripted.
Orton had been preparing in the week's leading up to SummerSlam for a typical main event until he arrived to the Barclay's Center that day. He was informed that he would not be taking part in a normal back and forth match but rather one that made Lesnar look dominant.
Orton was told that Lesnar knew how to graze his head to make it bleed with his elbow without hurting him. During the match Lesnar really did elbow Orton and hit him with a number of stiff punches, which resulted in Orton needing 10 staples to close the wound on the top of his head.Â
The idea of causing confusion amongst officials actually did happen, this lead to the referee stopping the match due to the blood and Orton's condition, which was really the only way for the referee to end it.
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