Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: September 21 2014
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Attendance: 12,000
One major main event rematch stood out as the selling point for Night Of Champions beforehand. Indeed, the second biggest bout on the card had to be cancelled prior to show time (more on that later), the third most important scrap hadn't received much in the way of promotion, another match had a predictable result, and the other championship clashes were either rematches or were simply showdowns that didn't capture one's imagination in the run-up to the PPV. Fortunately, the quality of the action on display generally outweighed the uninspiring line-up, and so we ended up with a worthwhile show, even though NOC delivered some questionable results.
Opening the show was then WWE Tag Team Title match, pitting The Usos against Goldust and Stardust. The Dust Brothers took on a new layer when Cody Rhodes transformed into Stardust in June, and then they bizarrely (no pun intended) turned heel on the Usos shortly after SummerSlam, thus leading us to this PPV showdown. It had the potential to be a good match on paper, and so it proved on the night, but does anyone really want to boo Goldust at this stage of his career? And while the Stardust character is something different, I'm not sure if this is something that the "WWE Universe" really wants to see either.
The Usos, in contrast, have had a great year in the ring: having been greeted positively since their fairly big push began in late 2013, they have since main evented Raw, won the Tag Titles, had an association with John Cena, and generally delivered the best WWE tag bouts in years, including a barn-storming opener to Battleground alongside Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. Therefore, given the odd (another unintentional pun) direction that The Dust Family have gone in lately, it seemed like The Usos would triumph here. But no: after countering a Jey Uso splash, Stardust surprisingly rolled Jey up for the pinfall and the tag straps. The crowd responded well to the shock title change, but unless The Usos are slated to regain the belts shortly, this seemed like a strange booking decision. Still, it does make the new champions relevant again, having seen their own push fizzle out shortly after the year began.
While Sheamus vs. Cesaro had an enjoyable battle at Payback in June, their rematch reeked of laziness by the WWE creative team. Sheamus' run as United States Champion hasn't exactly been a roaring success (his star power has reduced with every passing month), while Cesaro has seen his fortunes plunge since it was abruptly decided that he was no longer a Paul Heyman Guy. Having already seen Cesaro fail to capture the title with Heyman at his side, surely his chances of winning a rematch here were slim. And why did we have to wait nearly four months for the Swiss Superman to get a second chance? Actually, the answer comes from the response to another question: WWE didn't have anyone else slated to challenge Sheamus on the night when every title was at stake. In other words, this match was filler.
Still, the two men gave us a fun bout in their last PPV meeting, and we got another entertaining battle here. This might have been superior, in fact: the action was of a high quality, and both men were really laying in those blows. I thought going in that Cesaro might have won, in order to provide this show with a title change in a match that wouldn't have affected WWE's long-term plans, and to help rehabilitate Cesaro's career. Instead, WWE opted to keep the title on Sheamus following a Brogue Kick out of nowhere. The hope is that Sheamus is given fresh opposition to build on his strong performance here. As for Cesaro, though, it seems that things will only continue to get worse for the man who was supposed to become one of the company's biggest breakout stars after WrestleMania XXX.
If you were watching the Intercontinental Title match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz in the arena, you probably would have enjoyed it: although it wasn't as good as their SummerSlam opener, it was a fair effort which saw their respective managers R-Ziggler (R-Truth serving as Dolph's stunt double; hearing the announcers debate how similar the two men are visually was awkward) and Damien Sandow (Miz's stunt double) provide some commotion at ringside, the distractions generally leading to Miz surprisingly rolling up Ziggler to regain the IC Title.
If you watched it at home, however (as I did), the match would have felt entirely pointless (and it did). That's because WWE decided to put country band Florida Georgia Line on commentary, as they are performing at Tribute To The Troops in December. That's nice of them to get involved, but since they had no connection to those involved in the match, and are soft-spoken (they are country singers, after all), it just served to reduce the importance of this bout. At times, the announcers were more concerned with FGL than they were with the IC Title action in the ring. They did get involved near the end (to a big cheer, incidentally), but their overall presence made the match feel like it didn't matter. And, in the long run, it didn't, because Dolph actually beat Miz to get the gold back 24 hours later on Raw. Situations like this don't exactly enhance one's entertainment of WWE television. Sandow is showing potential as Miz's stunt double, though, which is something to take from it all, I guess.
Match four was supposed to pit Roman Reigns against Seth Rollins. However, Reigns had to have emergency hernia surgery days before NOC, which it was revealed would keep him out of action for a few months. One wonders whether WWE knew this would happen, since Roman actually pinned Seth on Raw the previous Monday. The timing of their Raw match felt odd (why would they meet on TV if they had a PPV scrap six days later?), so perhaps his surgery was known within WWE. Either way, Rollins no longer had an opponent, and so he decided to come to the ring and "officially" beat the absent Reigns by countout.
Enter Dean Ambrose. Last seen being Curb Stomped into a centre block on Raw the night after SummerSlam, and been injured since (he's actually been making a film for WWE Studios), Ambrose returned here to a huge ovation; one would have thought that Dean hadn't been on television for months, rather than a few weeks. That's a sign that his feud with Rollins has been warmly received, with this moment being the next chapter: the two ex-Shield members had a wide brawl, with Triple H coming out to have Ambrose thrown out of the arena. One suspects a supercard clash between Rollins and Ambrose at Hell In A Cell. Will WWE allow them to settle the score inside the cage itself? This would be a perfect feud to put inside the Cell, especially given the level of crowd support right now for Ambrose (and the encouraging heel heat that Rollins is now getting from fans).
The next encounter to enter the ring was Rusev vs. Mark Henry. Although Henry is as stale as any WWE character, WWE did a good job of making this match seem rather important (with Henry supposedly fighting for America itself against the Russian sympathiser), particularly by actually positioning their Raw confrontation in the main event slot, and with Lilian Garcia singing the American national anthem with passion prior to the match, to the point that Henry was in tears, overcome with emotion. Either that or he was upset that fans might chant Sexual Chocolate at him again once the bell rang.
This was your standard WWE big man match, and your standard American vs. anti-American battle for that matter. It held one's attention, and the fans were on the World's Strongest Man's side, but realistically nobody believed that Rusev's undefeated record would end here to Henry. And it didn't: Rusev picked up the win, by making Henry submit to the Accolade which was a minor shocker. Given Mark's post-match reaction, and his previous locker room chatter with Big Show, one suspects that a) Show will face Rusev next, b) Henry will turn heel (again) on Show and feud with him (again), or c) Show will turn heel (yet again) and feud with Henry. None of the options are particularly exciting, but at least Rusev's star continues to rise. I have to point out that JBL on commentary criticises every American who submits to Rusev, but has yet to challenge the Bulgarian Brute himself (and probably won't, since he is retired). What a hypocrite, eh?
On paper, Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton looked like being a fun match. However, the promotion of this meeting between two former World Champions was as follows: Y2J insulted Orton when talking to Triple H on Raw a few weeks earlier. Orton responded by beating up Jericho in the trainer's room one week later (inexplicably saying "What? It's the Season Premiere", which is embarrassing more than it is threatening). The PPV match was made. And that was it! Besides, Y2J has just lost a feud to Bray Wyatt, and Orton had recently lost virtually every feud he had been involved in from WrestleMania onwards. Like Sheamus vs. Cesaro, this felt like more filler.
Fortunately, though, Y2J and Orton rose above the almost non-existent storyline to provide us with a great match, easily the best of the night, and probably their best meeting to date. After a deliberately slow-building start, it evolved into a highly-competitive battle chock-full of big moves and dramatic near-falls. In the end, Y2J leapt back-to-front from the corner only to taste an RKO that won the match for Orton (basically, the spot by which Orton beat Christian for the World Heavyweight Title on a 2011 edition of SmackDown). Speaking of Christian, I forgot to mention that Captain Charisma had Y2J as his guest on The Peep Show (during the, erm, Kick-Off Show), with the highlight being a genuinely funny comment from Orton whereby he described Y2J and Double-C as being the real-life version of Terrance and Philip from South Park. Yes, I am a South Park fan. And I was a fan of this match: a true show-stealer, bouts like this are evidence that, sometimes, all you need is two really capable wrestlers and a free rein to just tear it up. A superb match, and a good way for Y2J to bow out as he ends his latest WWE run.
The matchmaking for the Divas Title bout was questionable. The main female storyline since SummerSlam has concerned Nikki Bella's shock heel turn on twin sister Brie at SummerSlam, and subsequent Raw segments with Nikki making all kinds of unpleasant remarks about Brie. Never mind that the acting has been atrocious (Nikki is better than Brie, but not by much), the segments generally dull, the remarks at times unnecessarily harsh, and the whole thing compromised by The Bellas' Twitter account basically telling us: this is a storyline (yes, I know they don't really despise each other, but why hit us in the face with such information?). Meanwhile, in an unrelated tale, AJ Lee is looking to regain the Divas Title from Paige in their ongoing (less cluttered, and actually more enjoyable) feud.
As the two were not linked, the only way to suitably bring them together would have been Paige vs. Nikki (with Stephanie McMahon rewarding Nikki for helping her beat Brie at SummerSlam, although it would have been heel vs. heel), or a four-way involving both Bellas, Paige and AJ. Instead, we got a compromise in the form of a 3-way, which kinda makes sense in making Brie feel ousted (the Authority are meant to hate her, remember), but just felt weird. A 4-way was the, erm, way to go here. Not that it mattered: the result was the most unexpected of the three (I expected Nikki to win so that she would become the Authority's golden girl, or at least for Paige to keep the title). AJ would win here (making her title loss at SummerSlam another pointless title switch), and by making Paige submit to the Black Widow. Although it feels like it's had its time after this latest title change, it looks like AJ vs. Paige will carry on, but why didn't Brie interfere to deny Nikki the title and thus enhance their feud? Whoever is booking the Divas division is not exactly doing a flawless job right now. One could say that about WWE in general right now, to be honest.
A good example of this came in the promotion for the main event, funnily enough. To recap: having previously been the 1 in 21-1 (he ended The Undertaker's WrestleMania undefeated Streak, if you're unaware), Brock Lesnar absolutely smashed John Cena to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam. Although Cena has been, well, Super-Cena for years now, this was a true beating, so it's understandable that to portray Cena as a threat to Brock's title in their rematch here at Night Of Champions, he had to look strong in the interim. (Some would argue that a weakened Cena challenging the almighty Lesnar would have been a better twist, but that's another story). As part of this, though, Cena was booked to destroy all three members of the once-unstoppable Wyatt Family. Not just Bray Wyatt, not just Luke Harper, not just Erick Rowan. All of them. And with Big Show and Mark Henry cheering him on, almost as if all three established names were giving an FU to those who criticise the staleness of the WWE product. This drubbing was such a setback for the Wyatts that none have been seen on WWE TV since. Meanwhile, Vince McMahon was probably happy: Cena was now Super-Cena again!
Despite this, some very good promos between Cena and Paul Heyman in the remaining few weeks of the NOC run-in helped to build this match up as a real talking point. Lesnar is part-time, so keeping the title on him might represent a challenge. But he's been so dominant that surely they couldn't have him lose here? Plus, could Cena feasibly become WWE Champ after being mauled so convincingly by Brock in their previous showdown? Yet he surely wouldn't be destroyed again, would he? Two big-names battling for the title in a main event where the outcome is of genuine intrigue. That's a hark back to the old days, isn't it?
Joking aside, one genuinely did wonder how WWE would handle this match, especially since the chances are that a Lesnar victory here would probably mean a fairly long title reign for The Beast. Lesnar immediately charged at Cena (who was wearing oddly-coloured camouflage shorts, almost like he'd forgotten his own and had to quickly find a replacement pair), as he did at SummerSlam, but unlike last time, it was Cena who hit an early finisher in the form of an AA. Like an excessively difficult videogame character, Lesnar kicked out at one! Brock then began hitting German suplexes on Cena, although the odds of him hitting 16 of them again were unlikely (he didn't).
Several more suplexes mixed with some brutal strikes meant that Cena was once again reeling at the feet of Lesnar as the match rolled on. But Cena struck back with a desperation AA, this time getting a two-count. With Brock somewhat reeling, Cena managed to apply an STF, only to be reversed into a Kimura Lock. Although it once broke Triple H's arm (twice) an d Shawn Michaels' arm too, and Cena had taken a beating, John managed to counter it by picking Brock up whilst in the hold and slam him down. A third AA and another STF later, and suddenly Cena looked like he was one big move away from becoming Champ. He hit a fourth AA and pinned the seemingly-finished Brock, only to be attacked by ... Seth Rollins???
Rollins hit Cena with his Money In The Bank briefcase, causing a disqualification. Seth then shockingly hit Lesnar with a Curb Stomp, and the clocks turning in his head suggested that he had an unmissable chance to cash in MITB on Lesnar. But before the most unlikely title change in years could occur, Cena hit Rollins with an AA, only to taste an F5 from Lesnar, who left looking stronger than a man who had tasted five finishers normally would, but still somewhat weaker, yet satisfied that through it all, he remained the World Champion.
In hindsight, the outcome of this match was always going to be a controversial decision, since the negatives of either man winning by pinfall or submission under any circumstances probably outweighed the positives in some form (that, by the way, is the philosophy to take going forward: if you get a major match where both men could be harmed should they lose, expect a DQ finish). Rollins appearing was a surprise, and him avoiding a beating from Lesnar is intriguing. Might Seth be Brock's opponent somewhere down the line? Meanwhile, Cena coming so close to winning may have annoyed those who see Brock as something of a modern-day King Kong, but it does open the door to a potential Cena-Lesnar decider inside and at Hell In A Cell. That's assuming, of course, that Lesnar appears on every PPV while he holds the title, which isn't a guarantee. The match itself was enjoyable, but it won't be remembered as much as their previous supercard showdown.
On the whole, then, Night Of Champions was basically a show which didn't have a great reason to exist, and didn't leave much in the way of memorable moments. That being said, we got a fantastic match between Jericho and Orton, a few good matches elsewhere on the card, a surprise return of sorts for Dean Ambrose, further momentum for Rusev, and an engaging main event (even if the ending felt like a bit of a let-down at the time) with intriguing potential storyline avenues for those involved. It certainly wasn't the best WWE PPV of 2014, but it delivered enough that Night Of Champions ended up being a worthwhile three hours of wrestling-related entertainment.
Overall Rating: 7/10 - Respectable
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