WWE Payback 2020 Results: Keith Lee Salvaged By Beating Randy Orton Clean

Keith Lee beat Randy Orton clean by countering the RKO with a Spirit Bomb. The impressive match—and milestone victory—will go a long way toward reversing the damage done to Lee in his clumsy debut this past Monday on Raw.

Keith Lee’s big night included no new theme music amid reports that WWE was set to replace his poorly received main roster remix. Though Lee continues to wear a compression shirt, he did return to his traditional tights as opposed to the baggy shorts from Monday night.

Just six tumultuous days into as rough of a start one can have under a shaky administration, there was an unnecessary due-or-die feel to Keith Lee’s match against Randy Orton in his main roster pay-per-view debut.

Lee is well aware of the backlash stemming from his butchered rollout as he recently took to Twitter to respond to one of many fans who want no part of his new theme music from Monday night. The unpopular decision of Lee changing his theme music—from his self-rapped version to a far more generic theme—reportedly carried legal implications.

WWE recently parted ways with longtime collaborator CFO$, who produced many theme songs for WWE stars from 2013 to March of 2020. CFO$ reportedly earns half of the royalties for all songs produced, which included Lee’s popular “Limitless” theme, as WWE continues to encourage stars to use new theme songs.

Instead of his unique abilities being showcased en route to increasingly more meaningful matches, Lee was thrown into the deep end on WWE television after being rushed off NXT TV shortly following the biggest win of his career at Great American Bash.

Lee’s fast-track to the main roster, which has included high-profile pitstops at WWE Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble, is an auspicious sign for his future. But as far too many former NXT stars have come to find out, nothing is guaranteed on Raw and SmackDown.

In fact, despite defeating Adam Cole in a Winner-Take-All match and becoming NXT’s first double champion, Lee would go onto become the shortest-reigning NXT champion in almost four years after losing to Karrion Kross in just his NXT second title defense at NXT TakeOver XXX. One would have to go back to November of 2016, when Samoa Joe held the NXT Championship for just 14 days, to find the last time an NXT Superstar held the title for a shorter timeframe, which remains the only reign in history shorter than Lee’s.

From a booking standpoint, it could be safely argued that nobody in all of wrestling had more momentum than Keith Lee as recently as a month ago when he had all the gold a heavyweight singles wrestler can win down in Full Sail University. But after showing up this past Monday on WWE Raw with a new theme, new gear and an underwhelming in-ring debut, almost overnight, panic has set in among many who (maybe foolishly) had high hopes for the talented big man. Unfortunately, WWE’s recent history of failing to advance young talent has rendered all panic alarms valid.

But Lee’s elusive win over Randy Orton will keep him on course to realize his immense potential, and at least for now, it will quell the initial concern overshadowing Lee’s arrival.