Randy Orton emerged from last Sunday's sold-out SummerSlam pay-per-view in Los Angeles as the new WWE heavyweight champion after cashing in his Money In the Bank briefcase title shot and pinning Daniel Bryan. Bryan had defeated reigning kingpin John Cena in an excellent main event bout minutes earlier, but fell victim to a Pedigree from guest referee Hunter Hearst Helmsley as part of a storyline in which the McMahon family appears to be united in their desire to prevent Bryan from representing the company due to a distinct lack of the appropriate "corporate look".
While Bryan did get to celebrate his victory briefly after wresting the title from Cena, who said goodbye on Raw the next night and headed off for elbow surgery that is expected to keep him out of action for four to six months, one would think he will continue to be a focal point and in the main mix for the next couple of months as he combats the antics of the McMahons.
Brock Lesnar defeated C.M. Punk in a very physical encounter (Are there any other kind when Lesnar is part of the equation?) that went back and forth before Lesnar executed an F-5 on Punk onto a chair in the other main event of the ppv. Paul Heyman seemed to be Punk's main target throughout the no disqualification match, and that distraction proved sufficient to help bring about Punk's eventual demise.
Alberto Del Rio, who reportedly was involved in a tiff in a bar that left him with some apparent facial damage, managed to defeat Christian in a successful title defense and Seth Rollins also retained the United States belt when Shield interference led to a disqualification in the pre-show bout. Cody Rhodes scored a victory over former partner Damien Sandow in another encounter.
Bray Wyatt and family managed to defeat and destroy Kane in the Ring of Fire opener, which may be the last we see of the Big Red Machine since he is going to be soon filming the "See No Evil" sequel shortly according to wrestlingobserver.com. Natalya bested Brie Bella with the Sharpshooter and Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn beat Big E Langston and A.J. Lee in mixed tag team action.
March of time
Hulk Hogan turned 60 recently and Vince McMahon celebrated his 68th birthday Saturday. Scary, isn't it?
TNA news
Over at TNA, Devon was pinned in a 10-man tag match between the Main Event Mafia and Aces and 8s members. According to the stipulation, Devon must leave TNA. There are reports that the Phenomenal A.J. Styles has not yet re-upped with the company, but he did score the pinfall on Devon and would seem to be at least considering re-signing with TNA, but a departure to ROH or WWE could also be a possibility.
Catching up on reading
Just finished reading Lex Luger's new book and completed the one by George Steele a little while back. We'll have a bit of a review in a future column. If you would like to send questions to The Insider about wrestling or would be interested in pro wrestling memorabilia that goes back more than 40 years, drop him an e-mail by going through billgilger@hotmail.com.
Shamokin's Bill Gilger arranges each week's interview with The Insider.