On Sunday, September 22, 2014, WWE held its annual Night of Champions Pay-Per-View event, where ALL WWE championships would be defended from top to bottom. After the last month and half of god-awful Monday Night RAW broadcasts, I haven't been enthusiastic about this event in the least. I told myself going into this event (along with the ones that follow) that if it blows, I'm going to consider reducing the amount of time in a week I torment myself watching WWE programming.

Preshow - The Peep Show (w/ Chris Jericho and Randy Orton)

I was glad to see WWE finally finding a use for Christian, who was still sidelined with an undisclosed injury, but managed to host this segment. It was an added bonus to see him and Chris Jericho trade quips before being joined by Randy Orton who referred to the duo as the Canadian Brad and Angelina...

As for the preshow panel, I'm was surprised that it went on for roughly an hour this time around. WWE is really taking this concept seriously as a vital component of these events hosted on the WWE Network. For that, I applaud them.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match - The Dust Brothers (Goldust & Stardust) def. The Usos (c) to become the NEW Tag Team champions


This was a solid match to kick things off for tonight, but I'm sure the Tag Team division are getting sick of opening almost EVERY WWE PPV nowadays. The Usos don't have anything to be ashamed of here. I wouldn't mind if they pick up the gold again later down the road to keep this feud alive since the Dust Brothers seem to be the only other team being pushed right now.



I hope the rumors of The Ascension being moved up from NXT aren't true as the main roster already has more than enough tag teams they aren't using - Rybaxel, Los Matadores, Kofi/Big E, Slater Gator (Heath Slater & Titus O'Neil), Adam Rose & The Bunny (facepalms...) and especially the Wyatt Family's Luke Harper & Eric Rowen.

I would love for a gif of Stardust rolling around the ring during the post-match celebration. I swear I love that dude's entrance theme TOO damn much.

United States Championship Match - Sheamus (c) def. Cesaro

Cesaro came out to this match looking like he got dressed in the dark wearing both Taz and Lord Tensai's entrance gear. As for the match itself, I found it hilarious that people were raving about this match on social media as they were in COMPLETE shock that it was amazing. I said it on my predictions on Facebook that this was going to be one of the sleeper hits of the evening and boy, did it deliver big time. 

If you want your match to look like a million bucks, you fight Cesaro. Sheamus isn't a bad champion nor a bad wrestler. It's just that most people (myself included) forgot that he was STILL the US Champion period. That's just bad marketing on WWE's behalf. I wish WWE would make people care about this title again, much like how The Miz and Dolph Ziggler are making people give a damn about the Intercontinental title. 


I love how Cesaro and Sheamus went out there and pulled out a few new moves out of their arsenals, especially that Judgment Slam counter to the Brogue Kick. 


After this match, they aired the Sting reveal commercial for WWE 2K15, like people haven't seen this already... 

Intercontinental Championship Match - The Miz (w/ Damien Sandow) def. Dolph Ziggler (w/ R-Truth) to become NEW IC champion

Let's be real here, Florida Georgia Line ruined this match on commentary as WWE did their best recreation of the mess that was Wrestling Society X's horrible commentary. You would think WWE would have learned from them, but nope. Having musicians who know next to NOTHING about a wrestling match call it from ringside does nothing but distract from what is going on in the ring.
Lawler: "I had a job at a concrete company, but the work kept getting harder and harder."
The puns start there and only get worse, folks. Fortunately, Ziggler and Miz's "stunt doubles" (R-Ziggler and Mizdow) provide more than enough comedy relief in this match. I'm sure there are a million memes and gifs of Sandow on Tumblr writhing on the ground, mimicking Miz post-match. I'm not going to lie, I HATED the finish to this match. If they were going to do that, they should have just had this match the following night on Monday Night RAW. If you're reading this article, you should already know that Miz lost the title to Ziggler the next night anyway, so losing here didn't make much sense at all.

Seth Rollins calls out Roman Reigns - Dean Ambrose returns

Seth Rollins moves from one feud with one of his former Shield teammates to a filler feud with the other former Shield teammate once Dean Ambrose was written off television to go film a movie. Now that Roman Reigns had emergency hernia surgery, WWE had to rush Ambrose back into the picture to continue this feud where they left off. If you don't know that timing is EVERYTHING in wrestling, then this is the perfect time to learn. I shudder at the thought of what WWE would have done here if Ambrose didn't already wrap up filming that movie he's going to be in. I love how everyone had a million and one jokes about Ambrose not even stopping to pay the taxi driver after arriving to the arena.

Did Ambrose pay the taxi driver? "Nope."
My issue with this "open challenge" was that it would have been better if they had one of the NXT guys, namely reigning NXT Champion Adrian Neville or Sami Zayn, fight Seth Rollins in a match on this PPV only to have Ambrose to interfere when Rollins would try to cheat to win. That way the talent on NXT gets some exposure to the non-WWE Network subscribers and Ambrose's return isn't so damn obvious.

As for Ambrose and Rollins' brawl, I didn't mind it but I tire of how many times they have done this in their feud. I'm guessing they are going to finally let them cut loose in a Street Fight or some sort at Hell in a Cell to get this over with. On a side note, WWE is REALLY trying to hit the analogies to Brian Pillman home as commentary consistently refers to Ambrose as a "loose cannon". I personally see Ambrose as the new Stone Cold Steve Austin who just doesn't give a fuck about Authority (the stable) or actual authority at all.

(Laughs) Stephanie McMahon came to the event wearing her Sunday best, not even bothering to change clothes after church...

Rusev (w/ Lana) def. Mark Henry

If you follow me on Twitter or read my other blog, Method to Madness, you should know from my discussions about Captain America that I don't like overly patriotic characters - not in comic books, films, television, or any other media. I do understand that WWE is trying to maintain this legit USA vs. Russia hype behind this match - I just don't have to like it. I just NEVER liked the mindset of "my country is better than yours" to rile people up. I felt sorry that Mark Henry was actually legitimately crying during Lillian Garcia's performance of the National Anthem at the start of this match.


I'm not going to lie, but I personally felt the best thing going in this match was high slit that was cut into Lana's already shorter-than-short mini-skirt. I was enjoying ogling her at ringside than watching the action in the ring.

Speaking of Lana, you have to give her props. She's one of the VERY few people in WWE who have legit heat with audiences with their on-screen persona. I've said it once I'll say it again - without Lana, I'm positive that Rusev would have been as forgettable as Vladimir Kozlov and Luther Reigns in the role he's in currently.

As for the match itself, it wasn't bad at all. You would expect these powerhouse vs. powerhouse matches would be boring but Mark Henry managed to make it interesting with his feuds with The Big Show and Sheamus when he was a heel and he recreated some of that magic with Rusev here. Speaking of Rusev, he's one of the better "big guys" that WWE has had in a long time. He's extremely mobile for a guy for his size, yet doesn't allow his speed hinder him like other typical powerhouses. My biggest complaint about this match was that they hyped up Mark Henry like he was going to be the one to put down Rusev for good, but he tapped to Accolade like a bitch, just like EVERYONE before him.
Everyone's predictions of Rusev being fed to Cena to end his streak is looking more and more to be the obvious outcome, especially since WWE has to be careful when and how they eventually have John Cena tie or surpass Ric Flair's 16-time championship record. We'll discuss Cena's title wins a bit later...

Randy Orton def. Chris Jericho

This was another match I felt that was point-less going into the PPV. Unlike the Rusev/Mark Henry feud, it wasn't given a ton of TV time but was setup in a knee-jerk reaction to the conclusion of Jericho's feud with Bray Wyatt. Speaking of the Wyatt Family, I have to wonder why they have been left off of WWE programming after Jericho and Wyatt's program ended. You would think that Harper and Rowen would still be in the Tag Team title picture, but nope.

Back to the match at hand though... This match served as Jericho's curtain call to his current run with WWE as someone has to put over Orton as a legitimate threat again after being reduced to Authority's low-tier henchman, behind Seth Rollins and Kane.

If there's anything to take away from this match, take note of the stellar ring psychology from bell to bell here. Orton methodically wears down Jericho like a predator to his namesake, while Jericho sells this brutal assault but comes back for more. Not many people can work this well with Orton and make him look this good. I hope Orton appreciates this much-needed blessing that Jericho gave him on the way out of the door. Orton hasn't had a match this good in ages. 

Much like the previous match on this card, my biggest gripe with this match was the finish. You could see that RKO coming a mile away, especially if you're an Orton fan. What happened to the days when you didn't see it coming at all?

Regardless, this match turned out better than I expected. See ya during WrestleMania season, Jericho. Enjoy the well-deserved break.

WWE Divas Championship Match - AJ Lee def. Paige (c) and Nikki Bella to become NEW Divas Champion

From the SHEER amount of people on Twitter raving about this
spot obviously don't know that this is NOT the first time the
WWE Divas have done this before...
I'm going to do an extensive article on the things that WWE can do to tweak each of their divisions, especially the Divas Divison, to make them better with the talent pool they already have, but I want to go on record and say that this match was MUCH better than I was expecting going into this. I'm glad to be proven wrong on a lot of these matches on tonight's card that looked bland at first glance. First of all, Paige's promo that was aired again before this match from the Preshow was VERY damn good. It's things like that pisses me off about how WWE handles the Divas Division. If WWE took the initiative to do things like that with Paige when she first debuted, then WWE wouldn't had to drag AJ Lee back into the mix and toss her right back at the top of the Division. Let Paige - and other Divas talk - give us a chance to get to know their personalities. I don't care if you love or hate the Bella Twins feud, but we can all agree that WWE has to start somewhere if they want to start building other stars in this division other AJ Lee.
I have to laugh at how you knew Nikki Bella came into this match ready for a fight - symbolized by her hair braided up in a cliched MMA/girl-fight manner. I hope all of the people who thought that she was going to drag this match down feel stupid now - Nikki took a lot of insane bumps and hung toe-to-toe against WWE's two top Divas. I don't know about anyone else, but she seemed more deserving of this opportunity than Brie Bella was last year when she was granted an one-on-one opportunity against then-champion AJ Lee. If Nikki Bella can keep up this level of intensity on a regular basis, then I'm perfectly fine with her being the Divas Champion again at some point in the near-future - despite the disgust from the IWC (internet wrestling community) on anyone from Total Divas holding the title.
As for AJ Lee and Paige, it was fine that they continued their pseudo-lesbian romance in this match as part the ring psychology, but Nikki Bella continued to come between them before their interactions came to a climax - no pun intended. I was glad to see AJ get more offense in for once instead of flopping around the ring like a ragdoll. Another thing that I noticed was that AJ's application of the Black Widow isn't as sloppy nor half-assed as she executed it in the past.
Like I said on my predictions on Facebook for this event, I feel like AJ Lee regaining the Divas title was the worst case scenario. Whether you are an AJ Lee fan or not, you CANNOT deny that the Paige/AJ feud is growing stale. Something has to be done to change things up here. Making Paige into the wannabe AJ Lee to compensate wasn't working and making Paige change back and forth from the Anti-Diva gimmick isn't going to work either, especially if WWE isn't going to stick with it. It's the same recycled and rehashed trend they are doing with AJ Lee. One week she's crazy another week she's calm and collected at ringside on commentary. Is it a little too much to ask for some consistency here? I like Paige just as much as anyone else, but c'mon people. How can she call herself the "Anti-Diva" when she's still doing photo shoots and glamour shots like just like every other Diva on the roster? That's the harsh reality I want ALL WWE Diva fans to see - they aren't so different. It doesn't matter if they are on Total Divas or not. What matters is their ability to go into that ring and bring it.

While I could rant on my personal suggestions on how to improve the Divas division as a whole, I'm just going to save that discussion for another day. Otherwise, I would be ranting about this all night.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match - John Cena def. Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) via DQ; Lesnar retains as a result

While I understand that WWE had to allow John Cena to win here to bounce back from the vicious beating he received at Summerslam last month, but I felt like a draw would have been a better conclusion to this match. They didn't need to destroy the ring to do so, but I felt like audiences would have been spared from Cena-Mania Running Wild as he magically brought Lesnar into submission until the inevitable interference from Seth Rollins.


I like to think that WWE's writers are smarter than they seem from their booking decisions at times, and that's why I'm positive that John Cena is NOT going to reach 16 championship wins to tie with Ric Flair - let alone surpass that number, until WrestleMania season. If built-up properly, this could make a really good storyline/angle to market WrestleMania 31 with or at least kick-start WrestleMania season with. Remember they did the same with unifying the championships before Royal Rumble last year. WWE has to handle that situation carefully as there's a LOT of people they could potentially piss off if they don't make this particular milestone significant. At the same time, I'm not going to be one of those people who are going to get upset over Cena surpassing that record. With The Undertaker's Streak broken, that merely proves that NOTHING in wrestling is sacred anymore - not distinct finishers/signatures, winning streaks, nor title records.

Say what you want about Lesnar but he sold that like a pro... Rollins must have
a death wish or something though.
While the match as a whole wasn't bad, it dragged on a little too long for my taste. The lack of involvement from Paul Heyman was rather strange as well since he did nothing when Seth Rollins came into the ring ready to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase. Heyman is usually a LOT more animated in his ring-side involvement during matches.

Closing Words

Was this is a bad Pay-Per-View event? No, but I find it rather odd that the bulk of WWE's fans were tossing the ENTIRE card underneath the bus with the exception of Dean Ambrose's return and AJ Lee regaining the Divas title being the only highlights from this event. I'll admit I wasn't in the best of moods while I was watching this event live on Sunday, but that's why I waited until I re-watched the PPV with a clear head later that week before writing this article. I don't know what drugs everyone else was on, but this was a pretty solid event, with almost everything on the card being well worth watching (the Divas title match, US title defense, Jericho v. Orton, and the Tag Team title matches standing out above the rest) but I couldn't shake the feeling like this was merely an action-packed, high-profile edition of Monday Night RAW. 
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