WWE Night of Champions 2015

Night of Champions 2015

Houston, Texas

September 20, 2015

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Seth Rollins holds the WWE World Championship and United States Championship, Ryback is the Intercontinental Champion, Nikki Bella is the Divas Champion, and The New Day are the WWE Tag Team Champions.

COMMENTATORS: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and JBL

In our opening contest, Kevin Owens challenges Ryback for the Intercontinental Championship. Early on Ryback impressed with a guerilla press slam to the outside, but Owens took control by targeting his opponent's left arm. The ever-inventive Owens hit a clever russian leg sweep with Ryback's arm behind his back at one point, a subtle variation on a classic that not only looked cool, but served a logical purpose. Good stuff. Ryback isn't the most fluid wrestler ever, but he's a serviceable monster and one that, throughout the match, had the foresight to make Owens look good. While I'm not sure this is the best Ryback match I've ever seen, it was an engaging one that didn't overstay its welcome and ended the right way - with me actually wanting to see a rematch. (3/5)

Uh...did the WWE just announce Taker/Lesnar III in a Cell via a video package? Way to underplay your hand, Vince.

After some words from Rusev, the Bulgarian Brute squares off against Dolph Ziggler, continuing their long-running feud over Lana and Summer Rae. I was not very high on their SummerSlam match, but as a fan of both guys, I was eager to see them top it here. As others have noted, maybe most succinctly on the Live Audio Wrestling podcast, the storyline they've built doesn't make perfect sense - Ziggler is the baby face, but its hard to get behind the guy who is now with the other guy's girlfriend (no matter how much the commentators play up the fact that Rusev dumped Lana), especially after Rusev became a bit of a sympathetic character following his pride-wrecking losses to John Cena. More recently, Ziggler gave expensive gifts to Rusev's rebound chick, Summer Rae, an extra twist of the dagger embedded in lonely ol' Rusev's heart. Anyway, the bell sounds and the physicality comes quick, with Rusev taking the upperhand and tossing Ziggler around with ease. A "We Want Lana" chant distracts the heel enough to give Ziggler an opportunity to get some offense in, but a sidewalk slam later and the Showoff is back on the mat. Things went back and forth from here, but never got great. Better-paced and more fluid than their SummerSlam match with one or two nice twists to the formula, the biggest blemish in this match was the finish straight out of WCW circa 95'. (2.5/5)

Backstage, Nikki Bella gets some last minute push-ups in while Charlotte hangs out with her old man and her fellow PCBers, Paige and Becky Lynch. 

The Tag Team Championships are on the line next - The Dudley Boys returning to take on The New Day, who come out first because they need to cut a promo, singing the State Farm theme and even giving a shout out to President Barack Obama before leading the audience (or attempting to lead the audience) in a "Save The Tables" champ. The Dudleys then arrived and if, I'm not mistaken, Kofi was on the main roster the last time the Dudleys were around - pretty impressive longevity. Big E calling Bubba Ray "old man" was the first awesome moment, but nearly everything the teams did worked at keeping the crowd engaged. Xavier's soundtracking of the New Day's offense is great schtick, though I hope they cool it a little bit - like everything else novel and interesting the WWE comes up with, they often squander it just as quickly through overkill. Overall, not as good as the better tag bouts from last year, but it ended the right way - with at least a hint of foreshadowing for the return of Bubba and Devon's beloved half-brother Spike. As expected, we got a table spot, expertly sold by Xavier Woods, but even with that bonus, this one didn't stand out as anything better than average. (2.5/5)

After some requisite championship hype, it was time for one of the most talked about matches on the card - Nikki Bella defending the Divas Title against second-generation, NXT alum Charlotte. I've been a vocal supporter of Nikki Bella's efforts over the past year, going as far as to call her numerous Network Special matches as good or better than anything AJ Lee or Paige produced in the same position. While not as smooth or ambitious a worker as either, Nikki, at her best, has proven herself to make up for her shortcomings with some respectable strength spots and surprising versatility. If the WWE's agents had actually taught her and let her work her entire 301+ day run as a pure heel (instead of giving her a confusing role as an arrogant-but-inspirational tweener), I think her run would have been one of the best any diva has ever had. Anyway...a poorly performed "knee tweak"by Charlotte early on started this match on the wrong foot to me, though at least this match had a story to tell beyond the typical "Your Turn/My Turn" action that currently plagues most of the men's matches. From there, Nikki absolutely dominated and looked good doing it - connecting with a vicious slam to the arena floor and some basic-but-strategically smart strikes and slams targeting Charlotte's knee. Nikki's suplexes into the ropes and use of said ropes were equally clever (as was a well-applied half crab). As the match wore on, Charlotte was systematically dismantled, beaten down with such a wide variety of maneuevers that the finish made absolutely no sense to me. Readers, I prefaced this review with compliments of Nikki and I know this could make me seem like a "homer" for the gal, but this match threw all logic out of the window with its conclusion - the equivalent of if John Cena miraculously ended up with his arm raised at SummerSlam 2014. Points rewarded for Nikki's impressive array of submissions, Charlotte's very good selling, and an appearance by the Nature Boy...too bad the finish deflated what had been one of the better divas matches that we'd seen on the main roster in a long time and one that, had Charlotte actually had the opportunity to develop her comeback beyond just applying her finishing move (which she shouldn't have been able to apply at all considering the damage to her own knee), might have even been a Match of the Night contender. (2/5)

The Wyatts were out next to take on the team of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and...some fan? Nope, that fan was taken out by security...it was Chris Jericho, who got a very nice reaction from the Houston crowd. Storyline-wise it makes a bit of sense when you consider that Jericho has history with Bray Wyatt (nicely mentioned by Michael Cole), but when you consider that the whole purpose of Ambrose and Reigns finding a partner was to combat the 300+ pound Braun Strowman, it didn't make total sense (I was predicting Mark Henry, by the way). Like the Shield/Wyatt matches of the past, the crowd was fairly amped for this, but unlike those classics, this one didn't feature as many sharp, high-spot filled sequences. Still, it was smartly worked and organized - everyone had moments of greatness, from Strowman single-handedly dominating the babyfaces for a brief stretch to Harper connecting with a vicious superkick to Roman Reigns to Ambrose and Reigns fighting from underneath with passion. As for the finish and post-match, I absolutely loved it. Over the past few years, Jericho's returns have been less and less interesting, him obviously returning just to "play the hits" and nothing else. Granted, Jericho may have had a good match here or there in the past few years, but he hasn't really swung for the fences in terms of character development for at least 5 years. Tonight, Jericho's quasi-heel turn was a cool, interesting twist that points to some new interesting matches for him - Jericho/Reigns and Jericho/Ambrose both sound intriguing. (3/5)

Backstage, Triple H and Stephanie give a pep talk to Seth Rollins before Sheamus arrives with briefcase in hand. As much as I really dislike Sheamus being the guy with the briefcase, I will admit, having Rollins defend his titles back-to-back, with Sheamus waiting in the wings, is good, suspenseful booking.

John Cena challenged Seth Rollins for his United States Championship next. Like at SummerSlam, Rollins was decked out in his Prince Valiant gear. Rollins and Cena got a ton of praise for that match, though I was not nearly as high on it - to be honest, I think I'm still in the camp that puts the Rollins/Cena/Lesnar at the top of my ballot for the best match of 2015. After exchanging rights and lefts, Rollins took Cena to the mat with a textbook headlock before connecting with a vicious double stomp in the corner. Credit to Cena too - I usually abhor this move as it relies on the receiver to illogically do a sit-up when they coud just as easily hang in a Tree of Woe position, but in this case, Cena made the extra effort to look like he was actively trying to pull Rollins from the top, not just positioning himself to take the maneuver. In full control, Rollins then let his cockiness take over allowing for the Master of the 5 Knuckle Shuffle to get some offense in, including the Code Red and an excellent hurricanrana counter to a Seth Rollins powerbomb attempt. Not to be outdone, Seth Rollins attempted a frog splash (drawing a big "Eddie" chant from the Houston crowd) at one point and then connected with a superplex-into-a-vertical suplex. From here, the hits kept coming and they came quickly - an STF, a powerbomb into the corner from Rollins, Cena hitting his top rope legdrop, and an Attitude Adjustment. Unfortunately, as crisp and clean as this match was, after months of seeing guys take John Cena to the absolute limit in 20+ minute epics, this one fell a bit short - at the end of the day, Rollins simply withstood more last month. Of course, one might point out that Rollins had more to lose at SummerSlam and that it makes perfect sense that Rollins would want to store some energy for his title defense against Sting...but if that was the intention, why not have it end with Rollins tapping out? A few more minutes of action and a more suspenseful finishing sequence would've put this one up a notch for me. As much as I love Cena and Rollins dishing out crazy moves and rapid-fire big spots, part of me is ready to see both guys take their foot off the gas a bit, do a bit more slowed-down brawling, and tell a story that doesn't rely on popping the crowd every 8 seconds. (3/5)

Fortunately, Rollins did get a chance to do that in his next match, defending the World Championship against Sting. Attempting to escape the match by any means necessary at the onset, Rollins took momentary control at a few points but was consistently bested by the fresher veteran. The tables turned, however, when Sting took a devastating bump through one, a spot that I don't think anyone predicted coming into this match. At this point, Rollins made his way down the aisle, pleased with himself and willing to retain the strap through what would've been a double countout draw...but like the legacy-seeking heel that he is, Rollins decided to pour salt in the wound, hitting the Stinger with a slam on the outside and then dragging him back into the ring for even more of a beating (including the first of two powerbombs into the corner). Sting eventually mounted a comeback, knocking the Architect clear off the top rope and into the barricade and then hitting a pair of Stinger Splashes to surprisingly muted cheers (his crossbody off the top got a better response, though, including audible "Holy Shit" and "You've Still Got It" chants). While not filled with nearly as many "movez!1!" as the prior match, this match told a more riveting story and benefitted from pregnant pauses between the high spots, especially in its final moments, which, watching at the time, I took as the Stinger expertly selling damage. Some fans find fault in the match stopping and having its flow killed, but as part of the story, I didn't mind it the break at all - Sting is an old lion, Rollins is the brash jerk, and the ending made perfect sense, with Sting using his last bit of energy to lock in his last hope finisher, but not having enough power left to keep Rollins from escaping. Fans who criticize Sting's role in WWE are remembering a Sting that has never existed in the WWE - yes, in WCW, Sting was "Their Underaker," an almost supernatural force that defied age - but in the WWE, Sting has only been presented as a relic. This match was The Architect vs. The Artifact and it told that story well. Easily my match of the night. (3.5/5)

Bonus point for Sheamus *not* cashing in the briefcase! (+1)

Minus point for Kane seemingly slotted in as Seth Rollins' next opponent. (-1)



With an average match score of 2.79-out-of-5, Night of Champions 2015 was a show without many low points, but without any high points. Bookended by its two best matches, Charlotte/Nikki was on its way to being memorable, but unnecessarily ended by throwing basic wrestling logic out the window and rushing to its conclusion. Cena/Rollins crammed dozens of high spots into what felt like half the running time of their SummerSlam match, giving the match half the feeling of greatness. Sting/Rollins delivered, though, and one can't argue that the right hands weren't raised in the Tag Title and six-man tag matches. Considering that this show didn't feature any particularly great matches, I'd really only recommend it to modern fans clamoring to see Owens, Sting, and Rollins.

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver