WWE Summerslam and the rise of Randy Orton

For all of those that watched Summer Slam a few weeks ago, you know that it was a good switch from the usual WWE Pay-Per-View. It began with an Intercontinental Championship between Dolph Ziggler (who is affectionately referred to as Mr. Ziggles) and Kofi Kingston. The match ultimately was interrupted by the Nexus, which was a shame because both wrestlers put on a fantastic show. I really do admire cases such as these because (Spoiler Alert) wrestling is staged and both men knew how the match was going to end. Yet they didn’t phone-in the match. My laziness would definitely get in the way if I were in their shoes. This leads me to discuss the Nexus, who has been terrorizing Monday Night Raw for the past couple months and finally get what they had coming to them: A royal smackdown (pun intended) at the hands of Team WWE led by WWE poster-boy John Cena. However, the biggest story from that match, and definitely the biggest of the night, was the return of Daniel Bryan to join Team Raw. For those unaware, Daniel Bryan was released from the company allegedly due to his in-ring adlibs during the initial Nexus attack. In the following months, diehard wrestling fans were sent into rage over the release and mostly due to the nature of the termination. Needless to say the shock the WWE Universe felt when they witnessed Bryan join Team WWE in their elimination match against Nexus.

What made the reveal all the more impressive was how well hidden it had been kept up until that point. There had been no mention of the fact that Daniel Bryan had returned and in fact people working backstage at the stadium later said that even they weren’t aware Bryan was there until he ended up coming out to the ring.

To help cover the fact that Bryan would be the mysterious seventh member of Team WWE, the audience had been informed that the Miz would be in the team. This actually sets up an interesting possibility as Miz and Bryan have already had history in the WWE and Bryan replacing Miz last minute can open up a chance for a new rival to form between the two wrestlers. Miz who has come a long way in the past year, and Bryan, who was arguably the strongest wrestler of the first season of NXT have the potential to create a truly great story line in these upcoming months.

On the Smackdown side of things, we were fortunate, to see Rey Mysterio take on Kane for the Heavyweight Championship in an somewhat disappointing match that saw Kane as the victor. Following the match and to no one’s surprise, a sickly Undertaker emerged to face his attacker. After a quick fakeout leer at Mysterio, Undertaker quickly turned on the true attacker who  to no surprise was his brother Kane. However, Undertaker was obviously not in his indestructible state and was easily beaten by Kane and set up a rival between the two, leading towards a championship match probably on the new Pay-Per-View, Night of Champions.

Now on to the WWE Championship match between Randy Orton and everybody’s pigment-challenged Irishman, Sheamus. It was a good back-and-forth type of match but ended with Sheamus knocking over one-too-many referees, leading to a disqualification, which caused Sheamus to retain his title. I believe  this was a massive mistake on the part of  the WWE. There hasn’t been a wrestler in a long time that has gained so much attention so quickly like Orton has in the past month. During every match where he appeared in, Orton instantly became a trending topic in the U.S. on twitter. The crowd is sent into a frenzy every time his music plays and the feeling is electric in the arena when he hits his finishing move, the RKO. WWE would’ve been wise to put the WWE title around Orton’s waist at Summer Slam so they could cash in on his massive popularity or at least extend the rivalry and book a rematch at Night of Champions. However, that is not the case now that WWE has booked a 6-man championship match at the PPV and rumor has it that Sheamus will hold onto the belt until Triple-H returns and they renew their rivalry. However, Triple-H is taking much longer to return than expected so who knows, WWE may become impatient and give the Universe what they want: a new age of Orton!

Upcoming Shows to Watch For: WWE Pay-Per-View: Night of Champions on September 19, 2010 at 8 p.m.