[2004-08-15-WWE-SummerSlam] Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton

[ohtani's jacket]

Chris Benoit defends the World Heavyweight Title

The WWE is generally very good at story stuff, but they tipped their hand a bit here by foreshadowing too strongly that Orton would win the championship. It wasn't so much the fact that they kept hyping that Orton would become the youngest WWE champion ever that did it, but how cleanly Orton worked the bout. It was obvious that Orton was going to win the belt and turn face. And since those were the seeds they were laying, they worked more of a traditional bout that didn't have a lot of the trappings you expect from a WWE main event. It wasn't a bad bout, but it didn't stir a ton of emotions. I'm sure there Benoit fans who were miffed that he dropped the belt, but he'd run his race. The problem was that it was hard to get behind Orton as a babyface after all the horrible things he'd done as a heel, especially without any sort of motivation. The fact that he was a third generation wrestler, and potentially the youngest WWE champion ever, wasn't enough to make up for the terrible shit he'd done. The saving grace was the finish. Just as it seemed the champion was going to win, Orton hit the RKO from out of nowhere. It was out of the blue, but felt like a believable way for a young challenger to dethrone a veteran champ. Afterwards, Benoit forced Orton to shake his hand, further signaling the face turn.