By Nicholas Jason Lopez

Now, when you imagine the “Night Of Champions” event concept being that every Championship must be defended on the show, you’d probably think that’s good.

However, the fact that this night is the only night billed where all Titles are defended seems misleading.

You’re telling us SummerSlam and even WrestleMania are nights where Titles don’t need to be defended?

Every Title should be defended at every PPV no matter the circumstance. That’s the reason why you have Titles to begin with. People need to feud. Titles are the perfect object of affection for both sides.

Let’s hope WWE moves away from a one-night theme of “Champions” and makes it more consistent. You might be surprised how much more interesting the product could be when the Titles are treated with prestige, rather than a prop.

Nevertheless, we’ve got a card that’s more than passable and we’ll get to all of that below. Ultimately, there are teases for moments of greatness to happen on this show, but we think the company will play it safe with most of these.

 
– Kick-Off –

– Six-Man Tag – Neville/The Lucha Dragons vs. Stardust/The Ascension: For those digging the Neville-Stardust comic book-esque feud and its continuation even after the seeming “payoff” with Stephen Amell at SummerSlam, we’ve now seen mid-card tag teams enter the equation in what looks to be a match with plenty of high-flying spots. Lucha Dragons and Ascension definitely benefit from this. LD need a position on the card since they’re not directly involved with the Tag Titles and Ascension have been on an on-and-off push since their arrival. Both teams find themselves in a new position to impress and let’s just hope they do that. With “The Cosmic Wasteland” just getting off the ground, they need to be established a bit more than in just cryptic promos. A win will keep them strong, while Neville will seek more help, which could be fun down the road to see who he gets. We previously called him teaming with LD for their “marketable luchador” look, so anything’s possible as long as they fit the feud’s realm. Can’t help but think NXT Champion Finn Balor is a shoo-in for this role, but we know WWE has bigger plans for him at the moment.

Prediction: Stardust/The Ascension

 
The Card

– Tag Team Championships – The New Day (Champions) vs. The Dudley Boyz: How awesome have The New Day been? Between their boisterous promos and Xavier Woods’ trombone and ringside vocal spewing, they’ve become a reason to invest in WWE programming. However, this is the first time we’re seeing them in a feud with a team that’s actually more over than them. The Dudleys have definitely made waves since their August 24 return and a push for a Tag Title shot only made sense. It has been a feud mainly over tables – New Day wants to save them while The Dudleys want to break them. It has made for some entertaining TV for sure. Here’s the dilemma in all of this – New Day have been so entertaining and we’ve already seen them lose the belts and gain them back, losing them again so soon would hurt their act. For the payoff to really work, New Day need to somehow flee with the Belts after this one and avoid going through a table. We’ll agree The Dudleys will get their moment, but we’ll wait for next month for that. With their long-term deal, The Dudleys will be around for quite a while and have plenty of time to become Tag Champs. With New Day being one of the company’s best acts and in a strong position atop the tag division, why fix something that’s not broken?

Prediction: The New Day

– Divas Championship – Nikki Bella (Champion) vs. Charlotte: It has been no secret that the “Divas Revolution” has been more of a tagline than any indication of actual main roster changes but in recent weeks, we’ve seen subtle things to make us think Creative is actually taking factors into account. Firstly, random tag matches are good for quality, but bad for logic. Two months in and Bella had yet to defend her Championship against any of the newcomers. It was obvious that WWE was trying to carry the reign to pass AJ Lee’s 295-day reign, with a “push for 300” agenda revealed as early as July. Fast forward and now that Bella has unceremoniously broken the record, we’ve gotten to the point where Charlotte almost needs the win to cement herself and prove the “new bloodline” is nothing to sneeze at. Don’t get us wrong – this will finally be the match that gives us all of the change we seek, but after Raw’s odd match finish, it was to get to this point for the payoff. It has got to happen. It’ll set everything in motion – Charlotte as Champ will likely cause Team PCB’s breakup and with Paige-Sasha Banks entangled in a feud, we’ve got actual potential with Diva storylines.

Prediction: Charlotte

– Six-Man Tag – Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose/Mystery Partner vs. The Wyatt Family: Recent weeks have seen a rejuvenation of sorts for The Wyatts with the addition of powerhouse Braun Strowman, extending what started out as a feud between just Reigns and Wyatt. The intrigue headed into this match has been who exactly the faces got on their side headed into battle. We’ve heard many rumors – Randy Orton, Erick Rowan, Baron Corbin (via a WWE.com photo slip-up), Kane, even Chris Jericho. On the other side, The Wyatts have actually formed relevance as they sought to take out anybody deemed fit to partner with The Brotherhood, like Orton and even Jimmy Uso, Reigns’ cousin. We’ve no doubt that the faces will win here with the help of their new partner, but the question is who’ll in fact join them? It has been established that Ambrose sought this person out so who knows who exactly it’ll be. Out of all the choices thrown around, we see Jericho as a logical answer, since he has history with Wyatt and fits right in. It’s hard to tell if it’s a one-off appearance or the beginning of a Shield 2.0, but with Reigns heavily favored to be in the World Title picture in 2016, this is probably just a way to pass the time and make it the former.

Prediction: Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose/Mystery Partner

– United States Championship – Seth Rollins (Champion) vs. John Cena: Stemming from SummerSlam when Rollins won the Title with help from Jon Stewart of all people, this rematch was already predictable for the event. The U.S. Title has only helped to boost Rollins’ ego and it’s funny to see him work double duty on this show, mirroring Jay Lethal in Ring Of Honor just this past Friday. The match will be the first high-profile of the evening for Rollins and while we expect good things for him in the main event, we just can’t see him retaining here. Cena has done wonders for the Title and regaining it will probably bring back the Open Challenge. With Raw ratings slipping, it’s no secret WWE probably wants to bring it back. On the same hand, Rollins holding both Titles sort of “hogs up” the Title picture. How far will Cena go the second time around? Who knows for sure, but this is the only way for it to happen. It’ll also be good for the show’s pacing because if Rollins loses the first match, it’ll cast doubt in the fans if he could win the second.

Prediction: John Cena

– Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev (w/Summer Rae): Oh god, we still can’t believe this is a thing. Lana’s recent wrist injury halted whatever payoff Creative had in mind for this abysmal storyline, so it seems we’re getting some form of an abrupt ending. We’ve seen Ziggler get accused of seducing Summer on Raw in a deliberate plan by the latter in a TMZ-esque crap storyline. Now, we’ve gotten to the point where Ziggy is buying gifts for Summer and hinting that he has feelings for her, despite saying he wants bygones to be bygones, which was what Summer said in her initial lying accusation. Just what is going on at this point? It seems WWE is leaning towards making a Ziggler/Summer couple, but where does that leave Rusev, who only used Summer to get back at Lana? Obviously, we need to get Lana and Rusev back together and that can happen by having her screw Ziggler over, which would leave an opening for Summer to help Ziggler. Whatever happens, it’s no doubt that all parties involved in this storyline have been weakened. Let’s just hope for the best in terms of match quality, that it’s good enough to make us forget the abysmal way we got here.

Prediction: Rusev
– Intercontinental Championship – Ryback (Champion) vs. Kevin Owens: We noted back on a previous Raw episode when both guys were involved in a tag match that they worked well together in the ring. How surprising that this became a feud not too long after? Both guys benefit from it. Ryback has a big obstacle in front of him and will be put to the ultimate test as a fighting Champion. As for Owens, he could be on the brink of being a factor in the upper midcard if he wins the IC Title. Both guys’ promo exchanges have been good thus far and we’re sure the match will have potential to steal the show. All signs point to an Owens win, as it opens up a floodgate of potential takers – Ziggler, Neville, Cesaro, etc. Ryback has done a respectable job as Champ, but the time feels right to pass it on to Owens. He could use the rub a lot more in his “push pause-play”-style push since coming to the main roster.

Prediction: Kevin Owens
– WWE World Heavyweight Championship – Seth Rollins (Champion) vs. Sting: With this being one of the show’s first matches announced, it has seemed to serve as an easy way to get people interested in the show and while that has been done for sure, it has been all about the wrong things. Never even mind the logic that Sting lost his one and only WWE match against Triple H at WrestleMania 31 and is getting a Title shot. We’ve seen Sting throw a Rollins statue into a garbage truck and play mind games with him. Not once has it even been played up that Sting is going for the one Belt that has eluded him his whole career. With it being Rollins’ second match and the limits Sting has in the ring, we’re not expecting a classic. On the match’s other side, we’ve seen plenty of teases and interactions between The Champ and Sheamus, Mr. Money In The Bank as of late. If you’re Sheamus, the cash-in opportunity highly makes sense since your opponent would be thrown into a third match and if Sting wins, that allows him to keep his heat by beating a face and not a top heel like Rollins. At the same time, WWE have been careful to make Rollins detest Sheamus and agree with the fans on his looks. We’ve seen teases here and there of a feud between Trips and Rollins down the road and an occasion to turn Rollins face. We expect the cash-in to be the catalyst that starts this feud. We just don’t see it happening on this night. The cash-in has been teased so many times we almost know it won’t happen. We’ll expect what we figured when the match was first announced – a way for Rollins to keep his reign going while also taking part in a high-profile match giving fans a chance to see if Sting could win the Belt.

Prediction: Seth Rollins