10 Fascinating WWE SummerSlam 2016 Facts
3. Referee Mike Chioda Did Not Know The Finish
There was plenty of confusion in the end of the Lesnar/Orton main event, and the confusion wasn't exclusive to poor Orton, whose brain was foggier than the morning after a good storm. Referee Mike Chioda, a WWE employee of three decades, was pretty foggy himself. That's because he wasn't told what the finish was going to be.
It wasn't like referee Chad Patton at WrestleMania 30 not knowing the Lesnar/Undertaker finish, because all he had to do was count Undertaker's shoulders down. Chioda knew Lesnar would win, but wasn't told that it was going to end via stoppage of some sort. All he could do was watch when the medics hit the ring to assist the wounded Viper.
It's most likely that WWE wanted to foster the uncomfortably-flat finish by making it seem like Lesnar had gone too far with the beating. If even the referee is breaking character without a clue what to do next, it weaves a little more reality into an already gritty tale.