SummerSlam: Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton highlighted WWE’s laziness
The finish to SummerSlam’s WWE Championship match between Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton was lazy in more ways than you would probably expect.
One of the most hotly anticipated matches heading into WWE’s latest PPV – and SummerSlam weekend in general – was Kofi Kingston defending the WWE Championship against Randy Orton. A match that was a decade in the making, Kingston sought vindication from The Viper after the latter supposedly held the former back from reaching the main eventer scene 10 years ago. It was a simple story, but also one that fans were extremely captivated to see.
The match itself turned out pretty good, with both men showcasing the best of their respective abilities, as well as a tremendous chemistry. That is, until the match’s final minutes that highlighted the laziness of WWE Creative’s booking.
The finish saw Randy Orton stare at, goad and intimidate Kofi’s family at ringside to the point that the WWE Champion felt compelled to mercilessly beat Orton down outside to a double countout. Kingston then proceeded to continue pummeling the 14-time World Champion before embracing his family.
Sound familiar? It should, because it’s exactly what happened at last year’s SummerSlam event and ironically enough, it was also for the WWE Championship.
The WWE Champion at the time, AJ Styles, had his own family at ringside before defending his title against Samoa Joe. The match’s climax saw the Samoan Submission Machine goad and intimidate The Phenomenal One’s family before P1 grabbed a chair and pummeled Joe for the DQ finish. When he was done, he left ringside to hug his wife and child, much like Kofi did this year.
WWE literally recycled the exact same WWE Title finish from last year’s PPV. But that’s not the sole reason why this year’s finish was lazy.
It was lazy because if the goal was simply to progress the feud, this was the laziest option and doesn’t promote as much intrigue for a rematch as, say, an actual conclusion would have. No one got over in this scenario. Well, it can be argued that Kofi got over because he stood tall in the end of it all, but if he’s going to stand tall, why not just have him retain with an actual pinfall victory? What even warrants a rematch when Kofi got his revenge already?
There were plenty of options on the table to progress this feud: Have Kofi retain by controversial means (something like how his Super Showdown match vs. Dolph Ziggler ended), have Orton win and then Kofi earns a rematch, etc. But they went with a false finish that did more to turn fans off from a possible rematch than get anyone excited for it.
Lazy.
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On the bright side, they are continuing a compelling feud between two competitors with excellent chemistry, which in itself isn’t a bad thing. We’ll see what WWE does to get us all invested into a rematch come the next SmackDown Live.