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Keith Lee just defeated Randy Orton clean at Payback 2020. While it may not be surprising to some, it undoubtedly took most fans by surprise as Randy Orton has been WWE's hottest heel and one of the company's hottest stars in the COVID-19 era.
Up until SummerSlam 2020, Randy Orton was undefeated between WrestleMania (after losing to Edge) and then his WWE title loss to Drew McIntyre. Now, Keith Lee has handed Randy Orton one of his few losses in WWE during 2020.
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It wasn't a classic by any means. The match hardly went over five minutes, but there was a realistic feel about it that added a sense of legitimacy to it. While there's always going to be one side that will go overboard by saying that Randy Orton got buried, there were likely a few very good reasons why WWE allowed Keith Lee to defeat Randy Orton clean at Payback 2020. Here are a few of them.
#5 Randy Orton possibly wanted to put Keith Lee over himself
One of the things that Randy Orton has said off-screen for a few years now was how rewarding it felt for him to work with the younger generation of his talent. Orton is the only Superstar of his generation on a full-time schedule and he's getting to work with a lot of exciting young talent.
Keith Lee is on that list and many were a bit surprised that WWE put him in a program with Randy Orton right off the bat. Keith Lee has had extremely impressive appearances in WWE so far - falling short to Roman Reigns at Survivor Series 2019 in an impressive performance during the traditional Elimination match, having a confrontation with Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble 2020, and now, beating Randy Orton in his singles PPV debut for WWE.
Randy Orton may have voluntarily put Keith Lee over in an attempt to build a legitimate star.
#4 The defeat to Keith Lee doesn't affect Randy Orton in the long run
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.
#3 Injecting Keith Lee into the WWE title picture
While Clash of Champions is expected to feature another Drew McIntyre-Randy Orton WWE title match, would it make sense to have it now without any involvement from Keith Lee?
Keith Lee defeated the WWE title challenger and the 13-time World Champion, which in itself, should be enough to secure a title shot. Not only that, but a Triple Threat direction for Clash of Champions would be exciting.
Unlike the main event of Payback, however, this would ideally be a legitimate Triple Threat Match and not one where a competitor appears later on to claim the win. While we understand WWE's reasoning behind that, this one would be different.
This would present an explosive Triple Threat match where Keith Lee wouldn't have to win the WWE title at all. Just having a presence in a World Championship match in his second PPV singles match would mark an unprecedented start to a PPV record.
Will WWE inject Keith Lee into the World title picture on RAW?
#2 Giving Keith Lee the dominant debut win
If you're thinking of a great way to debut a Superstar like Keith Lee in the COVID-era of WWE, what better way to do it than by giving him a big win against one of the biggest names in the company?
We don't often see Superstars debut the way Keith Lee has, since every spot he's been involved in on the main roster has been prominent - whether it was taking Roman Reigns to the limit or having a dream face-off against Brock Lesnar.
It's clear that WWE has big things planned for Keith Lee and we haven't seen a debutant being given such a big win since Finn Balor in 2016 - when he won a Triple Threat match, defeated Roman Reigns on his RAW debut, and then won the Universal title on his PPV debut.
Matt Riddle had an impressive debut as well on SmackDown, but he immediately went to feud with King Corbin afterwards, which was a bit underwhelming. And the feud is still going on.
#1 WWE wants to establish Keith Lee as the next "big man"
This is something that could be both a gift and a curse for Keith Lee. WWE hasn't been known of handling "big men" very well since Andre The Giant and that includes Big Show - who admitted that he was booked badly throughout his WWE career.
However, it's no secret that despite the change in approach, Vince McMahon is still a fan of "big men" and when it comes to a Superstar like Keith Lee - he represents the evolution of what a big man in WWE is. Unlike his fellow "big men" of the past, Keith Lee is deceptively agile and can move around the ring like a Cruiserweight.
His confrontations with Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns weren't unintentional and it seemed clear from the start that Vince McMahon has had his eye on Keith Lee for sometime now. The win over Randy Orton could be his attempt to start establishing Keith Lee as the next big man in WWE.
WWE's handling of Braun Strowman has been questionable post-2017, but he still ended up with a Universal title in 2020, so one can only wonder how WWE will handle Keith Lee's rise.
