The name of the PPV says it all really. This was a night heavily packed with champions. Champions of all aspects of the roster. That's right, every single title was on the line at Night of Champions, and truth be told, it was one of the better PPV's this year. Not a glorious affair by any means but it subtly done the job that it was supposed to do, and at most gave us some really decent matches.
Before the main show began, we were treated to a Peep Show segment on the kick-off show. You read that right folks, there was a Peep Show on a PPV in 2014. Out comes Christian himself, to an always lukewarm reception. His guest for the night would be none other than Y2J Chris Jericho, and he gave us a whole load of patter about his upcoming match with Randy Orton later on in the night. Orton appears on the titantron to make fun of the fact that Christian can't wrestle anymore because of the matches he had with him and that Jericho will suffer the same fate later on in the night. Jericho gets on the mic again and gives us some vintage Y2J patter... after Night of Champions, Randy Orton will never... ever... EVER... EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- you get the point.
What followed was a pretty decent card of wrestling, that kicked of with an absolute cracker of a match for the Tag Team Championships, with Jimmy & Jey Uso defending against Goldust and Stardust. This has been a really decent rivalry between the two sets of brothers, which heated up quickly when the Dusts turned heel a few weeks back, injuring the knee of Jey Uso in the process. As would be expected, this was a fast-paced affair, which saw the Usos take out all their frustrations throughout, and dominated for almost the entire match. However, it's not always the case that dominating will win the match. Being dominant doesn't win titles, roll-ups do, and that's exactly what happened when Jey went for a big splash, Stardust got the knees up, and immediately rolled Jey up to capture the Tag Team Titles for himself and big brother. Highly entertaining match, but you just feel as though the tag division, after a long period of being on fire, is now leveling off, and maybe the Bizarre ones holding the gold will add a new dynamic to what should be an electrifying aspect of WWE.
Next up, it was Sheamus defending his United States Championship against the Swiss Superman, and the King of Swing - Cesaro. I've seen a couple of criticisms for this match, and I don't really understand why, because for me, it was match of the night. Through sheer competitiveness, this match was the first in a long time for the US Title, that you genuinely couldn't have guessed the winner at any given point during the match. A good old fashioned brawl is what we were treated to, with short glimpses of why these two are just as much cracking wrestlers as they are hard-hitting fighters. Some amazing feats of strength from both sides, and on more than one occasion, it looked as though Cesaro would capture the belt for the second time, but it wasn't to be as Sheamus decided enough was enough and delivered a huge Brogue Kick from out the corner to retain the title. The match in general had a perfect pace, and enough action to keep you genuinely doubting that Sheamus may come up off the belt.
The real surprise result of the night came in the form of the Intercontinental Championship match, with Dolph Ziggler defending against The Miz. Where it wasn't quite to the same standard as the first two matches, or even to the standard of some of their previous encounters, this was still a fairly competitive match, but lets be honest, we all fully expected this to be an easy night for Dolph. Walk in, retain the belt, and leave with whatever lucky lady he has in his sights on that particular night. But there was a jink in that plan when Miz was involved in some foul play, rolling up Ziggler and pulling at the tights to become a 4 time Intercontinental Champion. On a side note, Sandow isn't having killing it as Damien Mizdow eh? Only guy I can think of that can pull off an imitation gimmick to absolute perfection. Give him a belt but.
A typically smug Seth Rollins came down for a chat next. As we all know, Roman Reigns was scheduled to face Rollins at Night of Champions, but he was rushed to hospital for emergency hernia surgery last week, and looks likely to be out for several months. Here's hoping the big man gets better quickly. Anyway, Rollins says that having surgery is no excuse for no-showing for their match, and gives Reigns ten seconds to get to the ring before he declares himself the winner by forfeit. Of course Reigns wasn't coming, and Rollins had his hand raised. He then made the mistake of issuing an open challenge to anyone in the back. Anyone. At the perfect moment, a taxi rolls up outside, and from it emerges Dean Ambrose. He disregards the driver's urges to "pay up, prick" and made a beeline for the arena, up the ramp, in the ring... and the brawl begins! The party would be short lived however, as security turned up, tied Ambrose's hands behind his back and carried him out of the arena.
USA vs Russia #246 occurred next, as Mark Henry came out to face Rusev. Prior to the match starting, there was a rousing rendition of the national anthem sang by Lilian Garcia, that reduced big Mark to tears, and it was an emotional moment for everyone involved. Rusev is all business but, and he came out to break some backs. Henry looked strong early on, but Rusev drove him spine first into the steel ringsteps and that was the beginning of the end already. Despite managing to hit a World's Strongest Slam, Henry couldn't put Rusev away, and the big Russian smelt blood in the water, locking in the Accolade and forcing the submission out of the World's Strongest Man.
Despite being skeptical about it when this match was announced, I kept an open mind about Chris Jericho vs Randy Orton. They are two guys who know each other very well and always put on a great show whenever they're in the ring together, but I just didn't have much hope for it. Now I can put my hands up and honestly say I was wrong, because it was an absolute peach of a match. They bounce off each other so well that you don't really get tired of watching them going at it. What was an all-round even contest came to it's climax when Orton looked to have Jericho beat, but Y2J had a beautiful Codebreaker, which Orton kicked out of. Jericho got over-zealous though, and after taking too long to go up top, his attempt at a splash allowed Orton to regain his composure and hit a cracking mid-air RKO to pick up the win. Bias means that I still preferred the US title match but this wasn't far behind it, and it was really what should be an upper midcard match on a PPV. Great match.
The penultimate match of the night saw Paige defend the Divas Championship against AJ Lee and Nikki Bella in a triple threat match. This was another surprise, but not because of the outcome, and rather the fact that it was much better than it should have been, considering Nikki Bella was one of the three involved. She actually looked decent throughout the match as well, hitting a rather good Disaster Kick type move off the second turnbuckle, and managing to hit a Torture Rack/Backbreaker combo to make it look as though she might take the title. It wasn't to be though, as AJ pulled her off the apron and threw her to the ground, in what sounded like a right sore bump. AJ locked in the Black Widow on AJ afterwards, and after initially looking as though she would free herself, AJ locked it in tighter and forced the submission, becoming a three time Divas Champion. Order appears to be restored, and this rivalry between AJ and Paige is immense, even if it does reek of typical Vince booking. Let Paige be a full on psycho like we know she can be, and put her and AJ in a submission match. You all know you want to see it.
Finally, it was time for the main event, and I don't see what was special about it. Wasn't mad on it at all. Of course, it was Brock Lesnar in his first defense of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena, and it was like looking at the Summerslam match in reverse. Within the first minute, Cena hit an AA, which Brock powered out of. Then after an all-round below par match, he hit a further 3 AAs, and after the last, he locked in an STF. It looked for all the world that Lesnar was going to tap out, but before that could happen, Seth Rollins came in and attacked Cena with the Money In The Bank briefcase, causing the disqualification. Rollins laid Lesnar out with a Curb Stomp, before handing the briefcase to the ref and calling for the bell. As he was making the way back to the ring though, Cena attacked him before the bell could ring, and Rollins escaped with his title shot still intact. Cena took his eye off the ball though, and Lesnar laid him out with an F-5 to close the show. Brock looked weak in the match, which I think is just bizarre, and I was actually shouting for Rollins to cash in and win the belt. Don't know where Lesnar can go now, it seemed as though Roman was getting lined up for a crack at him but that's off the cards now so I guess it's back to the drawing board for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship picture.
All in all though, Night of Champions was a thoroughly enjoyable show, with in my opinion, only Henry/Rusev and Cena/Lesnar the two matches that I couldn't get properly into. Sheamus vs Cesaro was an absolute cracker and I kinda want to see them do it again at Hell in a Cell. Wouldn't have an issue with seeing Jericho vs Orton again, and the other matches were at least above average. Overall, the show was a solid 6.5/10. If the storylines pan out the way they should, Hell In A Cell will be one of the PPVs of the year... but it never really does go the way we think, does it?
Cheerio!