After last night's Night Of Champions pay-per-view, only one word comes to mind: LAZINESS!!!! This was exactly what I was afraid of when it came to this event, and I was spot on. Not that this event has ever really been a very big, substantial event in the past, this one constitutes as one of their worst ones. Before I get any further into my personal view of the vent, let's get into the recap of the event for those that still don't have their $9.99 together and subscribe to the network.
The event started (after some kickoff show antics with Chris Jericho and the now semi-retired Christian) with the Tag Team Championship with the reigning Usos defending against the extremely bizarre, yet very dangerous, Gold & Star (don't call me Cody Rhodes anymore) Dust. After the somewhat surprising heel turn of the Rhodes brothers, this rivalry became personal, and with trash talk and (kayfabe) injuries being involved, this match was in tow to be quite a competitive match. After about close to ten minutes of action, Star Dust rolled one of the uses clean for the pinfall and the Dust Brothers (unofficial name) became the two-time Tag Team Champions.
Next was the U.S. Title, as Sheamus defended against Cesaro. On paper, this looked to be a very physical battle, next to Cena and Lesnar, and truthfully it was. Surprisingly a pretty good match and a great outing for the champion. Those that are familiar with the indie history of the wrestler formerly known as Claudio Castognoli (which is actually his birth name as well) know that he can main event anywhere in the world. Sheamus, on the other hand, can have hits and misses most of the time. This was a definite hit. After a lot of very grueling action, all it took was the much-feared Brogue Kick and Sheamus retained the title. Great showing by both men.
Next was the Inter-Continental Title match between the champion Dolph Ziggler and the challenge of former two-time champion The Miz. No this match wasn't great, but what made it straight buffoonery and shameful was the usage of both men's "stunt doubles". If Damien "Mizdow" isn't enough (again, what the hell did this man do to deserve such terrible treatment by booking/creative), R-Ziggler is the epitome of coonery and embarrassment. Not only does the Black community find it appalling, some within other races do as well. Entertainment??? I don't think so. I digress. Truthfully, this match was so bad my attention span didn't last longer than about three minutes. I was just so over this entire angle with these two. At least the former Miz, the must-see sports entertainer, was good enough to be a worthy heel with great promos and a naturalistic way of generating his heat. This 'Hollywood" Miz is tired, played out, and frankly makes him look worse than he ever has in his career. Ziggler, on the other hand, SHOULD be a main evener any time, anywhere. Now, he's nothing more than a B-listed young wrestler that is undisputedly the most under appreciated guy in the locker room besides Kofi Kingston. On top of that, the country music duo Florida Georgia Line was invited to help call the match. Are you serious right now??? Long story short, Miz became a three-time champion. Not surprising considering how little they think of Ziggler because of how "injury prone" he is, which is a PISS poor excuse.
This past Friday, Roman Reigns underwent emergency incarcerated hernia surgery. This is not a work. At first I was very skeptical because of the timing of it. What do I mean? I'll explain shortly. He was scheduled for a match against Seth Rollins, Mr. Money in The Bank came out and wanted the referee to raise his hand by forfeit. He then issued an open challenge to anyone in the locker room. We shortly see on the titantron a cab pull up into the arena, and out comes Dean Ambrose! Ambrose had been out shooting a WWE Films movie and shooting wrapped this past Saturday so he was already scheduled to be at Raw tonight. Ambrose came out like a house of fire and there was a brawl between both men, but as usual The Authority wanted Ambrose thrown out of the building and arrested. Although Rollins managed to escape with Steph and Hunter at his side, this was the not the last we would see of Rollins this evening.
Next up, the gigantic struggle between Mark Henry and the undefeated Russian destroyer Rusev. Seen as a match of nationalistic pride, Henry seemingly has embraced the role of the patriot due to his near involvement in the Olympics of 1996. In fact, the beginning of the match had Lillian Garcia singing the national anthem, while henry was openly weeping as the song was being sung. What...in...the...hell???? I could see Kurt in this role, but Henry???? Out came the Lana-proclaimed "Super-Athlete", and boy did these two collide with each other. Although not as good as the Sheamus/Cesaro match, this was another highly physical match, but Henry ultimately tapped out to the move formerly known as the Camel Clutch, The Accolade. Rusev's streak of defeating all the Black wrestlers has finally been met.
Next was Chris Jericho, who will be leaving to tour with Fozzy and for the promotion of his new book "Best In The World", faced Randy Orton. Whenever these two get together, it's magic and this was overall no exception. After ten to twelve minutes, Orton scored a big win over a sure shot future Hall Of Famer in Jericho. Word is Orton's next rivalry will be with Ambrose, and that one, folks, will be interesting.
The Divas Title match was next. The twenty-two year old champion Paige defended the title against prior champion AJ Lee and the newly heeled Nikki Bella (yawn!) in a Triple Threat Match. This actually wasn't a terrible match like most Divas matches are expected to be. The promo of Paige was well done and nicely put together before the match. It helps that AJ and Paige are great, great wrestlers, and...then there's Nikki Bella. While I admit Nikki took a big time bump to the floor during that match, she doesn't strike me as, pardon the expression, an A-plus player. However, AJ ultimately came away with her third Divas Title, which is making her one of the most celebrated stars to hold that championship.
The main event is finally here. Cena against Lesnar. The build up has been pretty good. The story of Cena overcoming his doubters was completely on point. Would he endure that same vicious and one-sided ass kicking that he suffered at Summerslam? We would find out when the bell rang for the match began. This time, Cena gave Brock the Attitude Adjustment (the F.U. for longtime Cena fans) within five minutes. The match didn't end with that, but this was clearly not the lopsided match Summerslam was, nor did I expect it to be. We definitely saw a lot of fire and intensity that we're used to seeing from Cena, but we also saw that same animalistic barbarism from the champion. The match was very much back and forth, and Cena was narrowing in on tying the (recorded) title reigns of Ric Flair with sixteen World Titles. However it was stopped by Seth Rollins, who attacked Cena and also a prone Lesnar with the Curbstomp finisher (known as The Blackout in the indie world). He attempted to cash in his contract to get his World Title shot, but Cena prevented that from occurring. This now serves as a very interesting set of circumstances involving these three men.
Overall, this night was average to probably below average in the WWE. TNA threw shots, in fact, at WWE, tweeting "While we like the iPhone 6, Samsung Mobile is available as well. Angry with #WWENOC, you have options too. Impact on Spike. Wednesdays at 9." TNA may not be a great source to throw shots, at least a lot of their pay per views historically have been pretty well put together. Neither is as on point as ROH or the iPPVs of Chikara, however. Truth be told, this event didn't hold good placing with NXT's recent Takeover II: Fatal Four Way event (see last week's blog).
It's very obvious Vince and his creative team has gotten extremely lazy. This is stuff that I've been saying for a long time now. Why weren't the Wyatts on the card? What the hell kind of ending was that during the main event? This is proof of how mediocre the product has become and how they seemingly don't care. This should've been an obvious note to fans that they really could care less about you if you're over the age of thirteen. This night, as a whole, was embarrassing to watch and literally made my bad day only worse because of the very lackadaisical approach to provide compelling entertainment that actually makes sense and keeps the fans intrigued instead of accurately predicting the outcomes of very tactless writing.
Later this week, I'll provide a piece on the minors and indies could revive the dying wrestling scene. However, for now, that's it and that's the basic summary of the C- graded Night Of Champions. See you guys and gals later this week.
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