Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar at WWE SummerSlam to win the Universal title. The fact that Rollins won the match wasn’t such a dramatic surprise — he was a +150 underdog while Lesnar was -200 as of Friday — but the manner in which it happened was an interesting twist in WWE storytelling.
Rollins beat Lesnar clean; what this means in the pro wrestling vernacular is that he didn’t have to resort to any type of chicanery — illegal weapons or a low blow or outside interference when the ref wasn’t looking or was incapacitated — and instead beat him within the confines of the rulebook.
I honestly can’t remember the last time Lesnar lost clean, like this. Seth Rollins has beaten him twice — once as a Money in the Bank cash-in at WrestleMania, and once aided by a low blow — and Undertaker also beat him once with a low-blow. Goldberg beat Lesnar clean with a spear and jackhammer, but it was such a fast match that it could be regarded as a fluke — which was “proven” the case when Lesnar won the rematch. This result painted Rollins as indisputably the stronger competitor.
Once again, we all know that pro wrestling is scripted, but there are a lot of nuances in the way they tell the stories. They wrote Rollins to be a bona fide main eventer tonight.
