Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible
Watch It – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety
Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings
High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches
DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch
Night of Champions - September 2014
Nashville, Tennessee
CHAMPIONSHIP BACKGROUNDS: Heading into tonight’s show, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is held by Brock Lesnar. The WWE Tag Team Champions are the Uso Brothers, the United States Champion is Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler holds the Intercontinental Championship, and Paige is our Divas Champion.
COMMENTATORS: JBL, Michael Cole, and Jerry Lawler
Goldust and Stardust vs. The Usos for the WWE Tag Team Championship is our opening contest. I'm not sure why the WWE opted to have this as the opener - with only one tag match on the card, you wonder why they wouldn't use it to change things up a bit later on. I liked the physicality but not necessarily the story, which suffered from the fact that, in today's WWE, you really don’t see enough heel tactics out of the supposed villains. Aside from Stardust briefly tying up an Uso in the ropes, the Brothers Dust wrestled a very straight match. Meanwhile, the Usos' lengthy title reign ended with more of a whimper than a bang, a quick pin after a competitive contest, but not an epic one. While it may have been time to switch the straps, compared to the wars they had with Rowan and Harper, this just didn’t come off as a climactic ending to their run. (2.5/5)
Cesaro challenged the United States Champion, Sheamus, in our second bout. This one had a slow start, picked up a little during the middle, but overall seemed like a very good "TV match" more than a great "PPV match." Like the previous match, the crowd popped big for the near falls, particularly when Cesaro pulled out some unique power moves. The finishing minute was undeniably awesome, but I'm not sure it makes the whole match worth a re-watch. (3.5/5)
After a backstage segment featuring Big Show and Mark Henry, we get country act Florida Georgia Line on commentary. Right around now I'm dreaming of a fast forward button.
The Intercontinental Championship match was next, with champion Dolph Ziggler (with R-Truth) taking on The Miz (with Damien Sandow) in a rematch from SummerSlam. The two dudes from Florida Georgia Line were the topic of conversation for a fair amount of the match, while Miz and Ziggler worked hard in the ring for a generally quiet crowd. When the country music stars actually got involved, it only hurt things. This led to a few too many near falls for my liking (especially considering how the previous two matches relied on the same trick). The actual finish was a shocker, but not an excellently executed one. (2/5)
Next up, Seth Rollins arrived and forced the referee to count out his injured opponent, Roman Reigns. Rollins then issued an open challenge, but for some reason, no one in the back - not Big E, not Jack Swagger, not Kofi Kingston - felt like challenging him. Instead, it's Dean Ambrose, arriving via taxi (at the exact right moment mind you) to take out Mr. Money In The Bank! A brawl then ensued, with Ambrose tossing Rollins all over the arena before the Authority arrived and hogtied him, leaving the fans with a very memorable image. As ridiculous as it was, the brawling was top notch and Ambrose's charisma just oozes out of the screen. This was yet another "star-making" moment for Ambrose, easily the most over babyface on the current roster. (4/5)
Mark Henry vs. Rusev was our next contest. Rusev has a streak going of really good PPV matches, but this one didn't move me. This battle of big men just did not live up to the hype that had been built up over the past few weeks on RAW. Not a bad match, just not a very exciting one. (2.5/5)
Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton followed, yet another match that started out a bit slow but eventually pulled in the crowd. I'm not as down as others on Jericho and actually liked his SummerSlam match a good deal so I wasn't surprised to get caught up in this one by the end. In a weird way this match suffered most from not having any real build, meaning that, as a viewer, I never really cared about who was going to win. (3.5/5)
Nikki Bella vs. AJ Lee vs. Paige for Paige's Divas Championship was next. All three girls got some offense in, which I liked, as it really did seem to make it "anyone's game" with Nikki Bella looking much better here than I expected. At one point she caught AJ off the top then positioned herself into a Black Widow attempt, took a hard bump after a stiff kick off the apron from Paige, and did her part for a Tower of Doom spot. Unfortunately, the ending was questionable to me - I'm guessing that this is all leading to a program between AJ and Stephanie. As this one was significantly better than I (or anybody) expected, I'm going to reward it with some pointage. (3.5/5)
And with 45 minutes left in tonight's show, it's MAIN EVENT time - John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar for Lesnar's World Championship. Right from the start Cena came out swinging, hitting the Attitude Adjustment early on. After a few minutes, though, Lesnar took control and we got a series of german suplexes reminiscent of what we saw at SummerSlam. Cena showed more resiliency, but Lesnar's offense was just wicked, specifically his impressive use of submissions (something he didn't incorporate into last month's slaughter). What seemed odd, though, was just how much the commentators played up the inevitability of a Lesnar win, the story of this match being essentially just how dominant the Beast is and how Cena was completely unable to sustain any real offensive stretches. When Cena did finally seem to get the upper hand, the finish was spoiled by the arrival of Seth Rollins. From here, we got a bunch of a shenanigans and Lesnar left with the title, Rollins never truly "cashing in"his briefcase. Basically, Cena got screwed...but so did the fans who, like me, craved something a bit more definitive out of this main event. (3.5/5)
With an average match/segment score of 3.13-out-of-5, Night of Champions may not have hit all the targets I wanted, but it made up for its lack of flash with consistency. No match dipped below a 2-point score, a testament to just how good the roster is, especially the veterans (Orton, Jericho, Goldust, and, at this point, Sheamus and Cody Rhodes). In his review of the show, longtime Lords Of Pain columnist Mr. Tito claimed it was the best PPV of the year, but I wouldn't go that far. Personally, I enjoyed SummerSlam a bit more (the matches were fresher and Cena/Lesnar, while not as competitive, at least left me with the feeling of "I've never seen that before!”). I'd also argue that the "peaks" of the Extreme Rules and Money In The Bank shows were higher than anything that happened here, though those events suffered from filler that this show didn't have. Not must-see, but certainly good enough to warrant its $9.99 price tag.
FINAL RATING – Watch It…With Remote in Hand
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