WWE Rumours: Summerslam main event finish was "negotiated" backstage
The finish of Summerslam saw Lesnar land a few legit elbows to Orton’s head, busting him open in the process. After referee Mike Chioda forced Lesnar away, the fact that Orton was bleeding profusely from his head also came to light.
This led to quite a shock and the entire crowd stood on their feet, while Lesnar was declared the winner by Technical Knockout(TKO). However, the crowd reacted negatively to the finish after the show went off the air.
The major confusion of the finish was that the WWE Universe (and apparently the WWE Superstars backstage) didn’t know whether the finish was a work or not. And it is being said that the finish of the match went down pretty much as planned.
PWInsider reports that about an hour or two before they went to the ring, there was a backstage meeting on the finish with Triple H, Vince McMahon, Mark Carrano, Lesnar and possibly Paul Heyman.
It is being reported that the finish had been greatly debated, discussed and “negotiated” backstage before the match.
Orton was apparently planning for a typical main event until he arrived to the arena. He was then told that he was not going to have a normal match, that the match wasn't about going back & forth and keeping both Superstars strong, but about making Lesnar look stronger.
Original plans had the match being a one-sided destruction for Lesnar, with Orton down on the ground bleeding. That was to come off like Lesnar "went against the script" and really hurt Orton, causing confusion and the end of the match due to referee stoppage.
Orton was also reportedly told that Brock knew how to graze him with his elbow to open a cut without hurting Orton, and was told that was what would happen during the match.
It turned out that Brock really elbowed Orton and hit him with stiff punches, causing Orton to need 10 staples to close a wound. Orton did as he was supposed to do - stay down and act like he was knocked out.
WWE Trainers, Medical staff and referees seemed bewildered themselves by the finish, and the referee stopped the match due to blood. All the referees seemed to have known was the fact that Lesnar was going over.
So referee Mike Chioda had to declare a TKO finish.