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Randy Orton is set to challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
Randy Orton faced Kevin Owens on last week's episode of WWE RAW. The match came about after Ric Flair agreed to the match on Randy Orton's behalf. Despite eventually winning the match, Randy Orton was not happy.
The Viper then cut a vicious promo, calling Ric Flair deadweight and worthless, clearly hurting the 16-time world champion's feelings. Orton then hit Flair with a low blow out of nowhere, to the shock of everyone watching. Orton then finished him off with his patented Punt Kick, which was done to presumably write Ric Flair off television ahead of SummerSlam.
Randy Orton is the top at his game right now and it won't be a surprise to see him winning the WWE Championship soon. What could WWE have planned for the finish to Orton vs. McIntyre at SummerSlam?
WWE's potential plans for WWE SummerSlam main event
Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue recently addressed the Orton-Flair segment from RAW, saying that WWE are writing Flair off storylines before the company returns to live TV. Tom also noted that the original finish for this match might have involved Ric Flair:
Randy Orton might not have visibly punted Ric Flair but neither did Braun Strowman visibly throw Alexa Bliss to the ground. It doesn't change the fact that WWE wanted Flair written off before the return to live TV. He could still return to cost either Orton or McIntyre at SummerSlam using as controlled an environment as possible. Now that was the original intention, to have Ric Flair somehow involved but the original plan was of course in an attack against McIntyre.
Tom Colohue then added that the new finish for McIntyre vs. Orton could involve Retribution attacking both men, which would lead to a no-contest. This could lead to a rematch at the WWE Payback PPV, which takes place next week on August 30th:
Don't be surprised if this whole thing is held up or potentially interrupted by Retribution in the main event of SummerSlam in order to get a draw rematch at Payback. I don't know why they've got a PPV the week after but they're having it as an overflow PPV and they will need big draw rematches. A week is not long enough to build a new feud. They will need a lot of rematches.
If any quotes from this article are used, please add an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling.
