This Sunday night on the WWE Network (or PPV, I guess, why, though?) will be WWE Night of Champions. Summerslam was a pretty good show, leaving Night of Champions with a lot to live up to, but the card has shaped up to be a pretty interesting one. The TV leading into Night of Champions has been hit-or-miss at times, but that’s okay as long as the payoff is good wrestling, right?
Divas Championship: Paige(C) vs. AJ Lee vs. Nikki Bella
This match is confusing at best because the clear feuds are AJ Lee vs. Paige and Brie Bella vs. Nikki Bella. It’s clear that Brie is going to get involved in some fashion leading into this match, especially after Nikki cost Brie her match with Stephanie back at Summerslam. AJ and Paige have been feuding for the Divas Championship and seemingly have begun to gel really well together. Paige really feels like she is coming into her own and as long as most of this match is AJ and Paige it should be fine.
United States Championship: Sheamus(C) vs. Cesaro
This match should be one of the better ones of the night. It almost doesn’t matter that the booking that led to it was rather uninspired because both Cesaro and Sheamus are capable of putting on really good matches and have done some good stuff together. If this can help to make these midcard titles feel more important as well? Awesome. If they just have a good match? That’s awesome as well.
Mark Henry vs. Rusev
Yet another match that has potential. A lot of people were high on the Rusev/Swagger stuff, but I just can’t find it in my heart to really care about Swagger. Mark Henry is one of the best hosses in the business so there is hope that this hossfest will be a good hossfest. It seems like Rusev will continue his path of CRUSHING until he ends up in a feud with Cena that is rumored, which tells us that there’s a good chance that he goes over Henry.
Tag Team Championship: Usos(C) vs. Goldust and Stardust
The Brothers Dust have been incredible in just about anything that they do and this is hopefully another chance for them to shine. I’ll never be a big fan of the Usos but they have some fun matches when they are against teams that reign them in a bit. Goldust and Cody are exactly that kind of team and this is actually a cool match on paper. I’m all for this and I’m all for the strange ones becoming tag champs.
Intercontinental Championship: Dolph Ziggler(C) vs. The Miz
Somehow this became one of the best feuds on WWE television over the past few weeks. Dolph is a great babyface that you love to see get battered around and hope that he pulls off the victory and Miz has finally found a character that takes advantage of how annoying he is and does it in a fun way. It seems like Dolph will probably win this and move on to another feud soon, but this should be passable pro wrestling with some fun antics.
Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton
Talk about a rushed, illogical way to keep two prominent names on the card. This match has zero heat and, like everything else in Jericho’s current run, feels lifeless.This should be fine if given enough time, but it’ll still be hard to really muster up the “give a shit” for this one.
Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
This one is kind of tough to get into considering the same match was given away on Raw for free and featured a clean finish for Roman Reigns. What’s the motivation for wanting to see them meet again? The crowd on Monday was kind of dead for this one, too, with it not being a bad match, but not great, either. I could see this being more interesting with a better crowd, but that’s rarely a reason to get super pumped for a wrestling match. There is talk of a possible Dean Ambrose return for a save, though, which makes this a must-watch.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Brock Lesnar(C) vs. John Cena
John Cena got obliterated last month and in the weeks following Summerslam he made his argument as to why he deserves his rematch. Most adult fans just do not care at this point and want to see Cena get destroyed again, while you know, kids and people buying merch are still about Hustle, Loyalty, Respect and the seasonal John Cena t-shirt color changes. Apparently they are split on how this one ends and if Cena wins or Brock retains, which means this could be surprising and not just another Brock destruction. Cool.
What we do know is that the outcome of this match will shape the next few months of TV while they continue the Reigns super-push-to-Wrestlemania.
