WWE Night of Champions 2013: Did the referee Scott Armstrong's fast count play a role in Bryan's victory?

Daniel Bryan can clearly be considered the best wrestler in the world after he finally managed to get his hands on the title, and more importantly, end the night as a Champion. After the ‘Daniel Bryan Running Knee’, Bryan pinned Orton clean for the victory. Though it was a great moment to see Daniel Bryan lift the title he so richly deserved at Night of Champions, the end came as a surprise to most of us because heading into the match Randy Orton was the favourite to walk out as the champion.

Despite braving the odds for more than a month and emerging on top at RAW last week, Bryan was not expected to lift the title especially since Triple H and the management did not consider Bryan championship material. It was confusing as to why Triple H didn’t want anyone to interfere in this match and stuck to his words till the very end. Hunter’s henchmen from The Shield could have had a say in the match after the referee Scott Armstrong was knocked down but there wasn’t any sign of them. Instead, WWE sent in another referee Rod Zapata just to make the match more legitimate.

The match moved on, and after a few minutes Armstrong came back and ensured Zapata that he was fine and would like to continue. The match neared its end and after the Buisaku Kick, Bryan pinned Orton to which Armstrong counted blatantly fast. Despite the fast count, there wasn’t any reaction from the match officials or the announcers as Bryan went into celebration mode. It took the crowd sometime to overcome this fiasco as they were expecting someone to come up and point this mistake out. But Bryan still continued celebrating and ended the show walking out of the arena as the new WWE Champion.

The question that this brings out is whether the WWE really meant to finish the match like this or was it Armstrong’s excitement to complete the match? There was very small chance of the latter to happen mainly considering the fact that the guy is a veteran referee and has officiated in several matches. And expecting him to make such a blatant mistake is highly improbable.

Now, if we consider this an angle for RAW this Monday night we might see Triple H come out and speak about the suspicious ending and how Bryan made use of the referee to cheat his way through to the championship gold. This can lead to Bryan being stripped of the title and Orton reinstated, with Triple H and the rest of his team celebrating with the tainted referee backstage. That way, a furious Bryan can continue fighting for the title that is rightfully his to own.

Irrespective of how WWE pans out this storyline, Bryan winning the title last night was a bit confusing for many as they weren’t sure what the WWE intends to do with him as a champion. However, with that said one shouldn’t write off the WWE Creative as there are chances of the story line progressing well with Bryan as a champion.