Hiya!
Thank you, Disney+. For a while there, I thought you were going to burn me like how you burned me when you didn’t make WWE’s Backlash pay-per-view event available with Night of Champions. I appreciate the warning to watch it live but the show started at 1AM where I live! I gotta have my beauty sleep! Thankfully, you guys did make Night of Champions available lickedy-split as it was made available the day later. Sure, you put up the video at 1AM the next day and I still needed my beauty sleep then! At least that’s a whole lot better than just not showing it!
Anyway, Night of Champions isn’t quite the old Night of Champions gimmick the WWE used before as not all championship belts were defended. That ultimately doesn’t matter as long as the matches are great anyway. So, let’s go through what happened at this year’s Night of Champions show!
The first match of the night was the close for the tournament for the newly created WWE Heavyweight Championship. This had Seth Rollins take on AJ Styles to see who would be going home with the belt. As these are two of the best the WWE has to offer, my expectations were really high and they didn’t disappoint. Lots of real quality action with some good in-ring storytelling. There were also some smart and creative reversal spots here and everyone got to do their signature moves. I was really impressed with the reverse suplex into the reverse Falcon Arrow spot. Really good stuff.
The finish came after Rollins kicked out of an AJ Styles’ Pedigree. Styles then clocked Rollins with a forearm before trying his patented Phenomenal Forearm. The Visionary, however, recovered enough and delivered a superkick to the Phenomenal One while he was flying through the air! Rollins tried to nail Styles with the Curb Stomp but his leg gave out as his knee was injured during the match. Styles went for a Calf Crusher but Rollins rolled through and reversed it into a Pedigree of his own. Rollins then hit the Curb Stomp on Styles to get the pinfall victory and become the WWE Heavyweight Champion.
This was a brilliantly executed match with no one really giving an inch regarding who was going to come out on top. I do love how Styles never hit the Styles Clash as it protects it as a finisher, which is something most finishers lack nowadays. I do wish there was a little more focused on Rollins’ injured knee but it didn’t really become a major factor in the match. A minor gripe, all things considered.
The next match had Trish Stratus taking on Becky Lynch. Can I say I love Trish’s outfit? Most of the time, when the WWE women’ perform in Saudi Arabia, their outfits stick out like a sore thumb because of it’s obvious they were forced to wear the spandex. Trish made it look natural! Sadly, you can tell Trish Stratus is not exactly in optimal wrestling shape. Yes, she can do a Chick Kick and even the Stratusphere but most of her moves were just punches and kicks. Not exactly the dominant whirlwind of offense she was in her heyday. Becky Lynch did a good job of selling the moves, though.
The finish came after The Man delivered the Manhandle Slam to Trish but Trish put her foot on the bottom rope to break up the pin. Trish then rolled to the outside and then seemingly tried to get something from under the ring. Becky the tossed her opponent in the ring but Zoey Starks then climbed from under the ring and hit her Z360 finisher on The Man! Trish then capitalized and his Stratusfaction on Lynch to get the pinfall victory.
Despite Trish not able to really do the stuff she used to, the match was still pretty good thanks to Becky Lynch’s selling. The introduction of Zoey Starks into the picture was a great way to introduce her and stick her into a big feud right off the bat. Hopefully, that means Trish Stratus will stick around but more in a managerial role as it seems to suit her much more for now.
The next match of the night had GUNTHER defending the Intercontinental Championship against the hometown WWE Superstar Mustafa Ali. Now, no one in their right mind would think of GUNTHER dropping the belt to Mustafa Ali but you gotta give the hometown crowd what they want. I still fully expected Ali to make a comeback, which he did in spectacular fashion with a sick looking powerbomb to the much bigger Ring General. However, most of the match was just GUNTHER wailing on Ali.
The finish came after Ali wormed his way out of a powerbomb attempt to hit the Ring General with a superkick. Ali then hit a springboard tornado DDT and then tried to nail GUNTHER with another 450 splash. GUNTHER rolled out of the way and hit a shotgun dropkick to Ali. One powerbomb later and GUNTHER raises his hands in victory and retains his Intercontinental Championship.
This was a pretty short and sweet match with Ali getting a good run. However, there was no chance GUNTHER would lose the belt here, so a lot of the drama of the match was lost. Still, this was a good showing for Mustafa Ali before the WWE drops him back to jobber to the stars status a week later.
The next match of the night had Bianca Belair defending her RAW Women’s Championship against Asuka. This is a weird match as Belair isn’t part of the RAW roster anymore… but Asuka is. I bet this is a hint of things to come. Anyway, as these two have fought before at Wrestlemania, I couldn’t help but think they would step it up here to make it so this rematch seemed like a good thing. What we got instead was a fairly standard match, in my opinion. Sure, there were some neat spots like Belair actually being smart enough to avoid Asuka’s poison mist spray. Sadly, none of them really seems to stick out in my mind.
The finish came after Belair dodged the aforementioned poison mist attempt by Asuka. The EST tried to drag The Empress of Tomorrow to the middle of the ring but Asuka got in between the ropes, forcing the official to move Belair away. This allowed Asuka to spit some poison mist into her hands without the official seeing. Belair then set up Asuka for her KOD finisher but Asuka took her poison mist laded hand and rubbed it into Belair eyes, stunning her. Asuka delivered a couple of kicks to the back of Belair head to get the pinfall victory and become the NEW RAW Women’s Champion!
I’m sorry but I can’t help but be a little disappointed with this match as there was nothing of note here. Even the finish, which was different as Asuka had to find another way to use the poison mist, fell flat as Belair was taken down with just a couple of kicks? For an established tough girl like Bianca Belair, this seems like an insulting way to go.
After the RAW Women’s Championship match, we now go to the Smackdown Women’s Championship bout. This had Rhea Ripley defending the title against Natalya… for some reason. Then again, there really wasn’t much of a match to speak of as, after Dominik distracted the Hart family member before the bell, Rhea destroyed Natalya for a couple of minutes before hitting the Riptide sidewalk slam to get the pinfall victory and retain her Smackdown Women’s Championship.
It’s kind of hard to give my thoughts on the match as there wasn’t much of a match to talk about. It’s good for Rhea Ripley and Dominik as it gives them massive heat. It doesn’t help Natalya as she’s been in the doghouse for god knows how long and she gets squashed almost immediately. Let’s just say I liked and disliked all at the same time.
The next match had Cody Rhodes take on Brock Lesnar in a rematch from Backlash. I still don’t really get the feud as it doesn’t make a whole lot of storyline sense. It is getting good because the match they had was fun but I still don’t get the heat. Anyway, the gimmick this time is Cody Rhodes’ arm was broken by Brock before the match and now he has to wear a metal cast. This proved to be both a curse as it put a huge target for Brock to focus on but also a blessing as The American Nightmare figured out he could use it as a weapon as well! I like the sentiment but wouldn’t smashing his broken arm, cast or not, hurt Cody more than it would hurt Brock? Just asking. Still, it did give the WWE an excuse for Rhodes to get the upper hand several times throughout the match.
The finish came after Cody slipped out of Brock’s F5 attempt and hit a Cross Rhodes for a 2-count. Cody then battered The Beast’s head with the metal cast but Lesnar mustered his power to connect with an F5. Lesnar then locked in his Kimura Lock submission finisher on Cody’s broken arm and Cody passes out from the pain, giving Lesnar the submission win.
This was a fun match by itself but it was enhanced by the super hot Saudi Arabia live audience. This made this match feel a whole lot special even though, on paper, it was another Brock Lesnar type match. The addition of Cody using the cast as a weapon did add a lot of drama. With this win, however, it looks like we’ll have the rubber match between these two at Money in the Bank.
The final match of the night had Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens defending their Unified Tag Team Championships against Solo Sikoa and the Unified WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns. Lots of high drama and in-ring storytelling here. I love how Roman Reigns plays to the crowd here as well. Kevin Owens looked great and Solo looked like a force to be reckoned with when he dominated. Still, this was mostly Sami Zayn’s story as he was the one getting all the chants from the live crowd.
The finish came after Reigns inadvertently speared the official. Zayn took advantage and his a superman punch to the Tribal Chief. Zayn then set up for a Helluva Kick but Reigns struck Zayn with a superman punch of his own. Owens then came out of nowhere to spear Reigns and drag him to the outside. KO then set up The Head of the Table for a powerbomb through the announce table but the Uso then struck and took out Owens. The Uso then climbed into the ring and hit Zayn with a couple of superkicks. However, when they tried to do one in stereo, Zayn ducked and they hit Solo instead.
Reigns saw this and he blew up on the Usos. Jey tried to apologize for what happened but the Tribal Chief wasn’t having any of it and he started pushing Jey around. Jimmy finally had enough and he delivered a superkick to Reigns! Jey tried to ask why Jimmy would do such as stupid thing and Jimmy replied they should’ve done it a long time ago before delivering another superkick to the head of the Bloodline!
The Usos then left, leaving a confused Solo Sikoa alone in the ring. He wasn’t alone for long as Kevin Owens recovered from the blindside and hit the Bloodline’s Enforcer with a stunner just before Sami Zayn connected with a Helluva Kick to get the pinfall victory and retain their Unified WWE Tag Team Championships.
This was one heck of a match! Some great wrestling here and it only became better with a hot crowd that was super into it. The closing minutes of the match were also really good as it *gasp!* pushes the Bloodline storyline forward! It makes you want to see what will happen on Smackdown as the repercussions are must watch TV now.
Overall, I really liked this year’s Night of Champions. Despite it not living up to its previous billing of all belts being defended, most of the matches sans the Smackdown Woman’s Championships, had something of interest. Could some of the good matches been better? For sure, but the ones we did get were, at the very least, watchable. The thing which puts it over the top was the final minutes as the Bloodline’s storyline is finally getting some development. Not exactly a must watch pay-per-view as a whole but the last match more than makes up for it.
Byee!
What did you think of this year’s WWE Night of Champions? Let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 