Brock Lesnar returns to WWE ring, leaves Randy Orton a bloody mess

The WWE held one of their biggest shows of the year, SummerSlam, last night in Brooklyn. While this wouldn't be something we'd normally cover on its own, the show did feature someone MMA fans have been talking about a lot over the last few months - Brock Lesnar. The former UFC heavyweight champion met Randy Orton in the main event of the show, and the promotion set the bout up to be as stiff as possible.

After throwing each other through tables and generally beating the tar out of each other for a while, things got a little strange at the end of the bout. Instead of a normal pinfall or submission, Lesnar just assaulted Orton in the ring with elbows from mount. Yes, pro wrestling is pre-determined and choreographed, but the elbows Lesnar hit Orton with looked very real. His head was bouncing off of the mat quite visibly. Then he started to bleed.

#TheBeast @BrockLesnar is inflicting an ALL-OUT ASSAULT on @RandyOrton... #SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/THGLEz4ePh

— WWE (@WWE) August 22, 2016

You can see the pool of blood beside Orton's head in the above picture. He ended up needing some medical assistance:

The Viper @ RandyOrton receives 10 staples following @BrockLesnar's @SummerSlam assault: https://t.co/E8BXGsLqFq pic.twitter.com/QZfhYRGeEX

— WWE (@WWE) August 22, 2016

The finish went down as a TKO win for Lesnar, which is highly unusual. It's still not 100% clear whether Orton bladed (used a razor to cut himself) or Lesnar actually busted him open with the elbows. The former is much more likely, but it hasn't been confirmed by anyone. Either way, the elbows connected.

While old-school fans of pro wrestling likely remember guys like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair wearing the crimson mask in matches back in the day, blood has been taboo in WWE for a few years now. The WWE is decidedly more PG-rated than it was even 10 years ago, and wrestlers are legitimately fined if they purposely bleed in matches (Dave Bautista was famously fined $100,000 by Vince McMahon in 2008 for doing it).

It was clearly booked as a way to build on Lesnar's larger-than-life persona in WWE. After all, his character is essentially an MMA fighter nowadays. But the actual physicality of the match, combined with the huge amount of blood Orton shed, made for a shocking and somewhat disgusting ending.

Basically, if you wondered what WWE would do with Lesnar after he failed two USADA tests surrounding his UFC 200 win over Mark Hunt, they've essentially booked him as an even bigger monster now, if that was possible.