I’ve been scratching my head so much after last night’s Night of Champions PPV that I fear I may have brought on premature balding. Regardless of my follicle situation, WWE’s last PPV of the summer brought up more questions than answers…Lets dive right in.
Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne (Air Boom) vs The Miz & R-Truth (Awesome-Truth) for the World Tag Team Championship.
A nice little opener this one. What struck me were the little things. The use of tag team psychology including the fake ‘clap’ tags and referee distractions are things we just never see in a WWE ring anymore. Just think back to Otunga & McGillicuty’s reign, Santino and Koslov’s reign even Big Show and Kane’s reign, never once did we see those little things that make tag team matches great. Despite the praise however, did the outcome really make sense? The Miz and Truth, storyline wise, can’t really claim a conspiracy against them if they get them selves intentionally disqualified. The story is clearly that The Miz and Truth flipped out because the ref missed a few things that ended up benefiting Air Boom, however an intentional DQ just makes you look stupid rather than victims of a ‘conspiracy.’ I found it rather odd that the FACE champions resorted to dirty tactics to overcome their challengers, surely a sneak victory may have been a better option playing into the ‘conspiracy’ storyline all the while giving your face champions a clean victory. As I say, some nice action but slightly dodgy action.
Winner’s and still World Tag Team Champions: Air Boom
** ½
Cody Rhodes vs Ted Dibiase for the Intercontinental Championship
Quite a slow match that never really had the opportunity to liven up. Reports have claimed that matches they’ve been having at live events have been garnering rave reviews… this can’t have been their best outing. Ted Dibiase just doesn’t connect with the fans whatsoever. Periodically, the crowd would start random chants ranging from ‘We Want Ryder’ to ‘Un-der-ta-ker’… with both men sitting at home, that sounds like a crowd that cares about Dibiase. With this being WWE’s latest attempt to push the million dollar son, one has to wonder, was this his last shot?
Winner and still Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes.
**
Dolph Ziggler vs Alex Riley vs Jack Swagger vs John Morrison for the United States Championship
See above. This match never really had the time to hit top gear. Aside from one showcase of incredible core strength from Morrison, it was pretty forgettable. I had to laugh at Ziggler screaming at Vickie ‘you just cost me the match!’ after she put Swagger’s foot on the rope. Of course, she actually saved the title for him… derp. Dolph stole the pin from Swagger for the win. This means we’re going to have a continuation of the whole Swagger/Vickie/Dolph storyline regarding Guerrero’s cliental that seems to have been going on for years with no advancement. Joy.
Winner and still United States Champion: Dolph Ziggler
Mark Henry vs Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship
Colour me every shade of shocked at the quality of this match. I have never been a fan of Mark Henry, but his recent booking has warmed me up to him (no homo). His hall of pain shtick and dominance has worked wonders for his character and it showed in this match. These guys told a great story with Orton constantly trying to put Henry down but failing because Henry was just too strong. The finish made Henry look like an absolute bad ass, with Orton spent and Henry scooping him up for the Worlds Strongest Slam for the 1,2,3.
The amount of cheers following the victory told its own story. In an era where WWE are too reliant on Cena and Orton carrying the company, a brand new and fresh champion is something to be celebrated. Can it last though? I can almost guarantee that Randy Orton will get his rematch in two weeks (!?!?) at the Hell in a Cell PPV. With the way things have been going with brand new champions recently, that aligns the stars for Orton to win back the title and thus wasting all that time spent building up Mark Henry as something special. I hope and pray that doesn’t happen and Henry enjoys a decent chance at finally breaking through as a legitimate main event player.
Winner and NEW World Heavyweight Champion: Mark Henry
*** ¼
Beth Phoenix vs Kelly Kelly for the Diva’s Championship
Pretty much a repeat of the Summerslam match. It’s worth noting how OVER Beth Phoenix was in her hometown and the ‘Kelly sucks’ chant was delicious … and true… in more ways than one. Nice top rope superplex that was unique for a diva’s match in recent times, so props on that, I guess.
What I can’t fathom is the booking. Kelly has gone over Beth on multiple occasions now. If the so-cal ‘Divas of Doom’ are actually meant to be taken seriously, Beth had to get the win here. I mean, where do they go from here? Certainly in the world of keyfabe Beth doesn’t deserve another title shot, will they go with Natalya? I suppose they could have Natalya win and Beth become jealous, eventually splitting up the pair? Meh.
Winner and still Divas Champion: Kelly Kelly
*
John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship
I’m not upset with John Cena winning the WWE title, that’s not my issue. My issue is why did they give Del Rio a reign in the first place? He started the year with all the momentum in the world. He won the Rumble, he won Money in the Bank but after all that, he faded away. The booking of Alberto Del Rio has been very hit or miss, but this is ridiculous. I have mentioned it before in these blogs but I absolutely hate short title reigns. In recent times we’ve had the following reigns for the WWE title:
CM Punk: 28 days
Rey Mysterio: 1 hour
John Cena: 20 days
Alberto Del Rio: 35 days
And for the World Heavyweight title:
Christian: 2 days and then 28 days
Randy Orton: 35 days
That’s just shocking. With the title being flip flopped around it gives absolutely no time for a champion to establish themselves, especially in the case of Christian, Alberto Del Rio and CM Punk’s first WWE title reign. Fuck, no wonder WWE rely on Cena and Orton so much when other superstars aren’t allowed to prove their reliability.
Now I’m not upset that John Cena became champion again, because fans simply weren’t buying into Del Rio. They need to freshen up his character because his ‘destiny’ shtick is getting old. Who bets that he’ll claim it’s his ‘destiny’ to regain the title tonight on Raw? WWE booking 101. Decent enough match, but not as memorable as Cena’s previous two efforts.
Winner and NEW WWE Champion: John Cena
** ½
CM Punk vs Triple H – No Disqualification
Punk vs HHH was a decent brawl. We got a tour around the arena, some nifty little spots and the Spanish announce table took a beating for old times sake. Half way through however, what could have been an entertaining 1 on 1 encounter turned into an overbooked clusterfuck.
Here we go…
The Miz and R-Truth attacked CM Punk and Triple H, The Miz put CM Punk on top of Triple H, the referee counted to two, the referee attacked The Miz, The Miz attacked the referee, John Laurinaitis and a new referee came out, Triple H covered CM Punk, John Laurinaitis didn't let the ref count, CM Punk covered Triple H, R-Truth broke up the pin, The Miz and R-Truth randomly left, John Laurinaitis started texting, Kevin Nash came out and randomly attacked everyone, Triple H smacked Nash with the sledgehammer and then Triple H got the win.
Ho. Ly.
At face value it was extremely and unnecessarily convoluted. The abundance of interference reminded me of WCW in its dying days and modern day TNA. I don’t believe it should have gone down like that, not one bit. It left a sour taste of disappointment and anger. It was billed as ‘personal’… it should have been.
In storyline and keyfabe terms, it somewhat made sense. Awesome-Truth wanted to get noticed. They felt CM Punk and Triple H were in a conspiracy, so they attacked them both and tried to get Triple H out of the picture. When Triple H kicked out of the pin they forced upon him with Punk, they beat the ref down, as they did earlier in the night. I guess following their comments earlier in the night of "Triple H may not even be C.O.O after tonight," you could feel it coming.
Lauranitis seems to want HHH’s job, and it appeared as if he was revealed to have sent the original text to take Punk out. Did you notice that after H kicked out of the GTS pin, he had a phone out and was shown texting? Nash came down (after being texted by Johnny Ace) and attacked both men because he has a beef with both, but he really went out of his way to take out Triple H. However, Punk stopped that, and Nash lost his cool and rocked Punk, which led to the Triple H win.
It has been built up ever so intricately across recent Raw shows and the action earlier in the PPV. It was just so OVERbooked though and seemed to go on forever and brought the match’s momentum to a screeching halt.
Speaking of momentum (it seems to be a common theme) has CM Punk been buried? I’ve seen plenty of outrage over Punk’s loss and I both agree and disagree.
I mean, during the match Punk suffered shots from a steel chair, a jacknife powerbomb, a pay dirt from R-Truth and three pedigree’s. That means it took FIVE ‘finishing moves’ for HHH to defeat Punk. It may be stating the obvious, but Punk has been in the storylines that have consistently had the most time on television ever since his promo in July. On top of that he has main evented the past three pay per views. That sure as hell doesn’t seem like someone who’s ‘buried.’
On the other hand, instead of capitalising on Punk’s WWE title win and the potential of him being a ‘renegade’ champion, the WWE chose to put the spotlight on Triple H replacing Vince McMahon as the ‘authority figure’ of the WWE. Now we know that Triple H has buried people in the past by using his unique position to keep himself in the spotlight. I mean, HHH is 40 and wrestled one match this year, are fans really supposed to buy into him being able to beat CM Punk? The Triple H vs CM Punk match seemed hot-shotted and could have been built up better had they given it more time. Of course Punk was on the losing end so could Punk be HHH’s next victim? His momentum has certainly cooled, but with some decent booking to round off this storyline Punk could be the TOP WWE draw.
Winner: Triple H
** ½
Money in the Bank and Summerslam were fantastic, and I was hoping for a lot more from Night of Champions. The match quality was nowhere near the level it should have been and some of the booking decisions were questionable at best. Still, the CM Punk/HHH storyline is still must see just to find out what the hell is going to happen.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts.
Big shout to Laila K of Sonic Boom Six for recommending this blog to Barney on my last post, if you read this one, thanks alot and I hope you enjoyed it!
Richard McMaster
Lets Talk Wrestling
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