Night of Champions- Review

Welcome to my second PPV Review, and with every title on the line this PPV promised much- but did it deliver?

Pre-Show
I honestly didn't watch the Pre-Show so I can't comment, however from what I read it sounded like there was some good mic work from Christian, Jericho and Orton and Orton was legitimately funny for once.

The Usos v Star and Goldust- Tag Team Championship
DDP Yoga is a miracle cure when it comes to Goldust it seems. Considering the amount of time Goldust has been in the business he's never looked better in my opinion. These two teams delivered a outstanding match, which we knew they could deliver given time- and it looks as though with the outcome we could be going back to that time when the Rhodes Brothers had the best match every time they were featured. The Title change was a good way to open the show, although considering the match following it I'm surprised they did open with this match as it seems they were sprinting a marathon.

Cesaro v Sheamus- US Championship
These two also delivered a great match, which I said they would right back when the pairing was first announced. You didn't expect the match to be like The Usos match with lots of dives and flips, rather a good story centered around power moves. Naturally in this kind of match there was a lull in the middle but the build to the crescendo more than made up for it. Cesaro hitting Sheamus with almost everything he had in his arsenal and Sheamus kicking out of everything made the US Title relevant in my opinion, with there only being one title the "Secondary" Titles need to be elevated a lot more, and this was done in my opinion as the two involved told a very good story- and made it look like the wanted to win/retain it. I don't have a major issue with the finish as I discussed in my previous blog- on a Heel Oriented Winners list there needed to be a babyface win, and also I think the next step for Rusev would be to go after the US Title- which of course means he needs a babyface to feud with.

The Miz v Dolph Ziggler- IC Championship Match
You know when I was just talking about elevating "secondary" belts? Well the way not to, is to have the primary focus of a title match at a PPV on a country band nobody has ever heard of. The constant cutting to Georgia Florida Line made getting into the match very difficult for me, and I'm sure many others, and given the workers involved that was awful planning. I said in my Summerslam Review and NOC Preview that I thought they only had Dolph win to pop the crowd and didn't have any long-term plans for him as Champion, and what do you know they had him drop the belt at the very next PPV. The only thing that stopped me from completely hating this segment was Sandow. Sandow mimicking Miz to a T is entertaining enough when they're entering, however when Miz was selling after the match for Sandow to copy him rolling around on the floor holding his head was absolutely sublime.

Seth Rollins v Roman Reigns
Match of the Year right here. Both Men delivered everything and I think Reigns surprised everyone with his new 720 Corkscrew Splash Finish.

In the words of Shawn Michaels "Now, Back to Reality" I didn't see the need for Rollins to have the Forfeit Victory, and I can only assume its so they're covered given the limited time they had to announce Reigns wasn't able to compete- so they therefore had the "match" to avoid being sued for false advertisement as (Unless its changed) When the announced the Final Card on Friday I don't think they do the "Card Subject to Change" in the fine print.

Ambrose coming in was kind of what I expected, although (as I shall discuss) they should of held off on him coming back just a little bit longer. Although given what happened later I'd of rather Rollins attacked Ambrose once he was tied up.

Rusev v Mark Henry
Murica. Having the National Anthem, Henry with the American Flag on the singlet and everything was too over the top in my opinion. It doesn't feel like an organic storyline considering Henry had his USA gimmick when he first came in, and has suddenly rediscovered his patriotism.

The match was never going to be a spot fest, however I thought the story they told was really good- however I do wonder how long they're going to keep Rusevs win streak, and whoever does it would be a made man in my opinion- Which of course means they'll have Cena do it.

Randy Orton v Chris Jericho
What we had here would of been an amazing RAW match, the feud these two seemingly had was based around Orton wanting to go after Jericho for no reason other than he wanted to. Which isn't a bad story but considering Jericho only just finished his feud with Wyatt they didn't really have a chance to build the feud properly. As such, we had a perfectly serviceable match- but without any significant story behind it, it was never going to be a show-stealer.

Nikki Bella v Paige v A.J.
This felt like a missed opportunity in my opinion. Instead we simply had "just another match" rather than any really story development. There were some good spots in the match. but Paige needs to learn how to call spots without the whole arena hearing her. A.J. winning was a surprise in my opinion- however with the reports that WWE want to go more Risque with A.J. and Paige the rematch clause was probably the best way to keep this pairing going for a little while longer.

John Cena v Brock Lesnar- WWE Championship
Why? Why does WWE and specifically Vince feel the need to wrap Cena in cotton wool at every opportunity. I'm not even overly upset that they had Rollins break the fall up because of what followed, however what did annoy me was the way in which they built to it.

After Summerslam you could be forgiven for thinking Lesnar would have the upper hand for most of the match, but nope. Instead we had Cena hitting 4 Attitude Adjustments on Lesnar- and the match did nothing for Lesnar other than highlighting how tough he was. The commentators really annoyed me in this match as they were putting over Lesnar was about to tap when Rollins interfered... When Cena was going into a pinfall! They soon rectified that, but it annoyed me so much that they didn't have the attention span for the Main Event to realise what was going on before a replay was shown.

Instead of having Cena take out Rollins, I'd of had Ambrose do his run-in now. This showed to me the confidence, or lack thereof when it comes to the powers that be's view on Ambrose in the Main Event. After everything that Rollins did, Ambrose costing Rollins an almost guaranteed WWE Championship would of been a stronger foothold for Ambrose returning than what we actually got. The F5 after all of this felt like a token gesture in my opinion, and was just a way for Vince or Kevin Dunn to keep Lesnar happy.

Thanks again for reading, I'll be on Twitter for the RAW tonight, Feedback is appreciated.