WWE Payback 2020 Results: Keith Lee Picks Up Shockingly Quick Win Over Randy Orton

WWE fans have been in an uproar over the controversial Raw debut of Keith Lee, but at Payback 2020, the former NXT Champion got back on track with a huge—and shockingly quick—victory over Randy Orton.

Although it wasn’t a true squash match, Lee defeated “The Viper” in blink-and-you-miss it fashion, and the monumental victory in Lee’s first official pay-per-view match should quell any concerns about the behemoth’s future on the main roster. WWE fans have been up in arms all week long after Lee’s contentious debut on Raw, where he showed up with less-than-flattering ring gear and entrance music that is a clear downgrade from his popular NXT entrance theme.

Even though fans were rightfully concerned about what those changes meant for his future in WWE, changes like this should come as no surprise. It has been customary for WWE—and more specifically, Vince McMahon—to make these last-second adjustments to WWE superstars, storylines or programming, and this week’s Raw, which drew poor reviews across social media, was plagued by a series of McMahon-led changes that were reportedly going on as the show aired.

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While those changes led to a lackluster Raw, one thing did stick: Lee’s push as a potentially huge star on Raw.

According to PWInsider.com, WWE is planning on pushing Lee as one of the top babyfaces on Raw, and while fans are hesitant to believe that given the unnecessary changes made to Lee upon his debut, Payback should help those same fans be more optimistic about Lee’s future on Monday nights. You could make a case that Orton has been the best thing going in all of pro wrestling in 2020, so the fact that Lee was not only immediately positioned in a feud against him but also beat him at Payback—in Orton-like style out of nowhere—just goes to show you that Lee’s impressive streak of appearances on the main roster does, in fact, mean something.

Consider this: Lee’s first three big main roster moments involved Orton, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, respectively. How many current WWE stars can say that they were positioned in such a high-profile spot on the card instantly upon their first main roster appearance? Very few, if any. While WWE has its fair share of creative woes and head-scratching booking decisions, Lee’s major victory over Orton just a week after his debut is a good sign of things to come and a promising indicator that McMahon will stick with his reported desire to create new stars.

With the mundane, audience-less Performance Center Era now a thing of the past for WWE, the company is looking at its transition to the ThunderDome as a way to reset its main roster product and change things up after five months of monotony on Monday and Friday nights. Raw is relatively thin on the babyface side at the top of the card, with a big dropoff from the way Drew McIntyre is pushed so strongly to the way that the next tier of babyfaces, including stars like Kevin Owens and Rey Mysterio, are portrayed by the creative team.

That gives Lee plenty of room for potential advancement up the card at a time when there simply aren’t a ton of intriguing or strongly-pushed fan favorites on Raw. WWE seems to have little desire to elevate Owens or Mysterio above the midcard while other heavily featured babyfaces, like Rey’s son Dominik, aren’t ready for such a high-profile role. As someone with absolutely unbelievable athleticism, above average mic skills, superstar charisma and a well-rounded in-ring game, Lee is precisely the type of star who could make a huge splash on the main roster.

Of course, that doesn’t guarantee anything in the wacky world of WWE, but Lee’s victory over Orton—and the manner in which it happened—at Payback surely is a great way to start.