10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 2017

2. The Shortest Pay-Per-View Match

Paul Heyman AJ Styles
WWE.com

Kevin Owens almost found himself featuring in entries for both the longest and shortest matches of 2017 after his crushing Universal Championship loss to Bill Goldberg took up just 20 seconds of time at March's Fastlane.

His blushes were spared by a strange outing at SumerSlam.

Randy Orton and Rusev barely got going before 'The Viper' struck with an RKO and polished off 'The Bulgarian Brute' in just 10 seconds. Seemingly aware they were needlessly humbling a Rusev character that needed shine far far more than his opponent, WWE booked him to beat the sh*t out of 'The Apex Predator' before the bell. Of course this didn't really matter by the time Orton's hand was raised in victory.

The assault went on for the better part of three minutes before Orton told the referee to ring the bell and hit his deadly finisher. Fans enjoyed the shock, but the company were frustratingly foolish to think this quick win in any way spared Rusev's blushes.

In this post: 
AJ Styles
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett