Night of Champions Review

Hello! Well, last night's PPV was definitely a thing. If you read my Predictions you'll know I actually had quite high expectations for the show last night, and I won't necessarily say last night's show was bad- because to be blunt it wasn't but I'd managed to work myself up into a frenzy on a few possible happenings so more fool me. Anyway, there's no time to waste- no really there isn't I'm writing two posts today.

Pre-Show: Cosmic Wasteland v Team Flippy Shit
There was a lot of Flippy Shit. Great! As far as Pre-Show matches go this match was actually quite good, in that it was a really fun match and they had believable false finishes- so credit to everyone involved in this match on that front. I think the one issue I've got is the fact the Cosmic Wasteland won with shenanigans, meaning we're getting another match down the road. Also, they fucked my Predictions up.

Kevin Owens v Ryback- IC Title
I actually really liked this match. It wasn't quite as good as I thought it could be, but with the finish there's obviously going to be another one so that isn't the end of the world. I basically had my say on Owens winning with shenanigans in my Predictions, I would have had him win clean just to kick his run off with a bang and establish himself as a legitimate champion- but again they might be doing that in the Rematch. I want Owens to get a really long run and especially with what happened later on in the show, I do wonder if we're going to get a unification match between the US & IC Titles.

Dolph Ziggler v Rusev
Depending on how you liked the Cena/Rollins match given what we know it could have been- this may well end up being the Match of the Night. That's something I never thought I'd be saying today, and it's somewhat of a process of elimination- but this match was so much better than I thought it could be. I don't know if it was because I was actually invested in this match because I've been wanting a double-turn and Dolph to go Heel for a few months now and it looked like they were going, but this match was really good. They told a really good story, and at least to me when they were doing things like Sleeper Holds it didn't actually feel like a Rest Hold, it felt like Dolph was actively trying to beat Rusev. So on the whole I really liked this, I'm not saying I liked the finish- well actually I would have done if Summer had done it deliberately but with the way the played it off I didn't like it.

The Dudleys v New Day- Tag Titles
I'm so happy they didn't put the Titles back on the Dudleys. With the aftermath it appears as though they're going for a Tables Match at Hell in a Cell, and I'd genuinely have New Day win that in some contrived way. Then at Survivor Series I'd have a Ladder Match where again New Day win in some contrived way, possibly by adding in the Primetime Players and at TLC and only at TLC will they win the Belts back.

I liked this match without loving it, it just didn't really click for me- and I'm not even sure why. Xavier's great, what's new there and all of the New Day's shenanigans were fun. I nearly died laughing when Big E listed off who had supposedly signed their petition, but the actual match wasn't that good- which I don't mind on RAW but on PPV I want more from New Day matches. Sometimes the shenanigans aren't enough, and that's coming from Me! The aftermath with the Table spot and Xavier doing his best D-Von impression with his twitching was great in my book, and despite my reservations over the match I'm still looking forward to New Day and this feud going forward.

Charlotte v Nikki Bella- Divas Title
Firstly, before I get into the match and the finish. I LOVE Ric Flair. In the last week he's done more to try and elevate the Divas than the rest of the WWE has done in basically three months. I don't know what Flair's legends deal is, but if they can get him managing Charlotte full-time after this last week if they don't do it I'll be pissed. Especially when later on down the road my idea for Charlotte as a Heel and cutting Promos on her had would have even more of an effect should they do it.

Right then, the match. It wasn't bad, I'll give credit where it's due- Nikki didn't look out of place in the match last night. Although, I'm not necessarily sure that's a good thing in-terms of overall match quality. Whoever was the Agent for the match should be doing it for every match on the card, not just the Divas matches- especially with to be blunt limited wrestlers. It was seriously the simplest story possible, Nikki goes out and works the leg, keeps working it and then works it some more. Some of the transitions and spots were quite sloppy, but on the whole the match was fine. I do actually have one big nitpick, as I've already said- this match was telling the simplest story imaginable in-terms of working the leg. You'd think this leg working would be to sell the fact Charlotte can't do the Figure 8, but nope- first attempt Charlotte just got the Figure 8 in and Nikki just tapped. But as I said, that really is a nitpick and I'm definitely not complaining that they finally took the Belt off of Nikki.

I really had to laugh at the finish. Even some Bellas Fans (the one's I'm not blocked by) were finally acknowledging the fact that Nikki only had the Belt/Record because of Punk after last night. They didn't even try and pretend that wasn't the case, literally (Smackdown doesn't count) at the earliest possible opportunity after Nikki got the record they took the Belt off of her. So can we stop saying it was anything other than the fact they wanted to get the Record off of AJ now?

The Wyatts v Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose & Chris Jericho
I never thought I'd be saying this, but I didn't want it to be Jericho. When the Countdown hit I groaned a bit, and when Jericho came out I groaned even more. I'm not saying Jericho's "fat", but I don't think DDP Yoga is a great workout. I'm looking forward to see where they go with Jericho given the aftermath, and the fact Fozzy don't have any dates until two days after Survivor Series suggests to me that Jericho's here for one of his runs as opposed to a one-off. Also, HE'S GOING TO BE A HEEL! YAY! I've wanted Heel Jericho for a while now, I just don't like Jericho as the Happy, Smiley Babyface. Given he tries to reinvent himself I'm hoping he get's a different style of Light-Up Jacket, similar to the Balor/Devitt one where it actually spells something as opposed to Random Lights or just drops it.

I was saying throughout the build to this, anyone who's not dwarfed by Strowman is fair game in-terms of the selection. You know what, it should have been. I just don't understand the logic in them bringing in Jericho, who's not only lost to Bray in their series last year- but is not only not as big as Strowman I don't even think two Jericho's stacked on top of each other would be bigger than Strowman. They did their best to get around it, but it really didn't work.

The actual match, Jericho selection aside was really quite good. With the Reigns and Strowman dynamic they basically gave us a Mini Reigns/Brock flashback with the way they built the match around Reigns trying to take Strowman down. I'm not sure if the Jericho stuff after means that this feud is, not done because I don't think it'll ever be done- but put to bed for now. Either way, hopefully it does.

John Cena v Seth Rollins- US Title
In isolation this match was by far and a way the best match on the card, in fact it probably still was out of isolation- and it's understandable as to why it wasn't as special as the Summerslam match and I don't even think it was better than their "Broken Nose" match. As I said, that's not to say it wasn't good- it was a Cena match and in 2015 that's the furthest thing possible from a bad thing. There's some people who talk about how Flair only did one match, and this is the Cena match. I still really liked it, and I'm especially happy because Cena beat Rollins (I never in a Million Years thought I'd be saying that) because it means we're getting the US Open Challenge back. I defy even the most hardened of Cena "haters" to say that's a bad thing. If I had to take issue with one thing, CENA DIDN'T CELEBRATE WITH THE "WE HATE CENA" GUY! THAT'S A HEEL TURN IN MY BOOK.

The stuff after with Cena stopping Rollins leaving and giving him another AA was really good in my book because it set-up the Sting match and the story I thought they'd want to tell perfectly.

Seth Rollins v Sting- WWE Title
I tweeted just before "that" incident that this match was exactly why I would and wouldn't want Sting to win the Title at exactly the same time. Sure enough, Sting got just completely fucked off that Buckle Bomb and it massively detracted from what was otherwise a pretty entertaining match. I'm not saying it's Rollins' fault on the Buckle Bomb front, Sting may well have told him to do it- but Sting's 56. Was it really a smart idea to practically launch Sting into a corner with very little control as to how he'd hit it? Up to that point it wasn't necessarily a great match, but they were telling a good story and I was entertained by it- but that spot just killed the match (and nearly Sting). The crowd didn't know what to make of it all when Sting practically collapsed and then they had to massively rush the finish, which was fair enough but without much build it took away from the match somewhat.

I was getting worried when Sheamus actually gave the Briefcase to the Ref this time and we didn't get an unintentionally hilarious spot with Sheamus and the Ref that I was wrong about Sheamus not cashing-in until he's doing the Ninja Turtles stuff. Then Kane came down, and he's been eating. I'd thought Kane v Rollins was going to be the Main Event for Night of Champions all the way back to when they did the spot to write him off at Battleground, so I suppose on that front it was all just a month late.

The more I think about it, despite that Sting finish and there being no outstanding matches this PPV was actually really good. Night of Champions and Hell in a Cell are rarely ever all-time great PPV's just because they're well and truly in the wasteland between Summerslam and the build to the Rumble, but we've had a lot worse PPV's let's put it that way.

Thanks for reading as always, we're now moving on to Hell in a Cell where Brock/Taker is happening as announced last night. I'm not saying it was a bad way to announce the fact it's Brock/Taker, but I can guarantee some people will have missed it. They didn't even segue to the "Go to Hell Tour" (which I'm probably just going to end up calling Brocktober) it just sort of happened and a minute later Brock/Taker at Hell in a Cell was happening. But before that we've got the RAW Review tomorrow and Hell in a Cell build in general so hopefully you come back for the Reviews on that front starting tomorrow. Thanks again for reading, I hope you tag along on Twitter tonight for RAW, I'm actually quite looking forward to it.