Legendary referee Mike Chioda recently spoke with James Romero of Wrestling Shoot interviews about the 2016 SummerSlam headliner between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton, a match that ended with the Beast busting open the Viper with repeated elbow strikes. The match would later be called a victory for Lesnar via TKO. Hear Chioda’s thoughts in the highlights below.
Says he thought something was going on as Lesnar really went at Orton with the elbows:
Brock gashed him open and I could tell there was something going on, but I didn’t know if it was really Brock towards Randy or if it was just Brock listening to what the office wanted him to do. Randy had a little bit of heat at that time. He gashed him open real bad over the forehead. You could tell he was going for it because he was just elbow to forehead. I was kind of shocked that they would do that because concussion protocol was still strong at that time.
Says Orton and Lesnar didn’t really talk earlier that day:
There wasn’t a fallout between Brock and Randy but they just didn’t talk all day, so something was going on. I don’t know if it was really from the office or Brock telling them how he wanted it. I don’t think Randy really had too much heat with Brock. He kind of knew what was coming, I think.
(H/T and transcribed by Sportskeeda
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