By Nicholas Jason Lopez

*Graphic By Emmanuel Gonzalez*

While Night Of Champions delivered entertaining matches, necessary Title changes and even a few returns, it wasn’t a night that left you utterly jaw-dropped like other events this year.

However, we got enough storyline development to be curious what happens in the follow-up.

Some things were good, while others were questionable at best.

Let’s get to the fun down below.

(Aired 9/20/15)

The Breakdown

– The kick-off six-man tag match between Stardust/The Ascension and Neville/The Lucha Dragons was exactly what we expected going in – a standard six-man tag with comic book-esque melodramatic tendencies mixed in with aerial maneuvers. The spots were mostly well-timed. Stardust looked cunning by using his own henchman to halt Neville on the top rope. Just like we thought, the heel trio looked stronger with the victory. Welcome to the Cosmic Wasteland indeed.

– The opening video took a play on the term “Night Of Champions,” with all the challengers talking about what the night would hold for the fans from their perspective, leading into sound bites from the current Champions. Nice editing.

– The WWE Intercontinental Championship match between Ryback and Kevin Owens was an interesting choice for an opener to say the least. Some cool spots to start out – don’t think anyone expected Ryback to actually pick Owens up and toss him out at ringside. Owens looked like a man determined – targeting Ryback’s shoulder and going in. The Champ on the other hand, showed great resilience looking tough. Just before the match could get too hot, Owens managed to flee a victor with an eye rake followed by a school boy pin, winning his first IC Title. Exactly what needed to happen.

– A “Brock Lesnar Go To Hell Tour” video hyped Lesnar-Big Show for the 10/3 WWE Network Live Special at Madison Square Garden, Lesnar appearing on the Stone Cold Podcast on 10/19 and then taking on The Undertaker at Hell In A Cell in a rematch on 10/25. Not sure how to feel about that one, since we got the huge announcement in a video package with no fanfare, but the announcement’s shock value overrides the presentation factor.

– The Rusev/Summer Rae backstage segment had him refuse to answer any questions, looking determined to beat Dolph Ziggler while “Cold Fish” Lana watched at home. The interviewer made note of Summer wearing Ziggler’s earrings and she refused to admit it, looking nervous. Sounds about right.

– The Ziggler-Rusev match was good enough in quality to make the abysmal storyline fade into the background for the time being. Of course, the memory lied in the finish – which saw Summer inadvertently help Ziggler hit the Zig Zag after she accidentally threw her shoe at Rusev while reacting to getting herself ejected. The finish would’ve been fine for a payoff if we didn’t have the confusing gift angle on top of this. Ziggler embraced Summer on the ramp on his way back up, which she wasn’t happy about. It’s hard to make much of this, but it’s better than what we could’ve gotten. Just think about that one for a sec.

– The Tag Team Championships match between Big E/Kofi Kingston and The Dudley Boyz started with a New Day promo targeting the Dudleys’ table habits. Woods’ hair though. Just saying. Their portion of the promo mentioning “illustrious names” that signed the #SaveTheTables petition was pretty hilarious, not on the cutesy side. New Day’s antics seemed to be at an all-time comedic high, between the trombone playing and “rhythmic headlocks.” At the same time, Big E was showing some ferocity at points, with how he confronted Bubba Ray Dudley face-to-face. New Day were hilarious here, but they were still being great heels, getting heat the whole time. The DQ finish was an easy way to get heat and keep the belts on New Day since Woods literally broke up the pin that would’ve gave the Dudleys a pinfall win and the Titles. We couldn’t come away without a post-match angle involving a table and at least it involved Woods getting 3D’d. Also liked how Michael Cole denounced New Day for being hypocrites when they called for the tables to rip off the Dudleys.

– The WWE Divas Championship match between Nikki Bella and Charlotte was mainly hyped around the Raw angle that saw Charlotte get screwed over but rewarded at the same time and that Bellas’ long-standing reign just passed 300 days. Most of the match saw Charlotte get downright dominated as Bella targeted the left knee. Team BAD also watched from a backstage monitor to appear relevant. Charlotte’s comeback eventually led way to the Figure Eight with the bridge, as Bella tapped out to the fans’ delight. This is what had to happen. No – it wasn’t the best Divas match, but you definitely can’t deny there was actual emotion in this one to get behind Charlotte. The post-match genuine father-daughter embrace with Charlotte and Ric Flair truly made it “official.”

– WWE Intercontinental Champion Owens’ backstage promo had him deny the “controversy” in how he won and used the Title to describe it as a “prize” and took more shots at Ryback. Usual Owens promo, which we can all agree is never a bad thing.

– The backstage segment with Charlotte/Team PCB/Ric Flair saw them in full celebration mode. That was the “situation they broke back to backstage”? Wasn’t that dramatic, guys.

– The six-man tag match between Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose/Mystery Partner and The Wyatt Family had several intriguing factors going in, from the “third man” secret to seeing how all three would do against powerhouse Braun Strowman. The reveal of Chris Jericho was something that we called in the predictions as a logical move given he already had history with The Wyatts. The match itself had its share of chaos and thrills which comes with all these guys’ styles. It makes more sense to keep The Wyatts strong in the end, while they also built the foundation for something in the future with the faces. Y2J’s blind tag into the match before Reigms could hit the spear could foreshadow a later heel turn, but it played into the finish as he was laid out by Strowman. Post-match furthered this one up when Jericho purposely bumped shoulders with Ambrose on the way out. Sweet. We’ll always take a heel Jericho. It makes sense too since it was established that Ambrose was the one who called Jericho in to begin with.

– The Rollins/Triple H/Stephanie McMahon had them pump up Rollins for his two matches, while Sheamus said he was ready too, not far behind. It seemed rather unusual that both of Rollins’ matches would be back-to-back as we’d think The Authority would have Rollins’ best interest in hand.

– The United States Championship match between John Cena and Rollins was highly entertaining as it went on – both guys went back-and-forth the whole time with a pace that never slowed down. The result was never in question. Cena winning makes way more sense in helping to establish the U.S. Title anyways. Post-match saw Rollins try to flee, get AA’d for his troubles on the floor and tossed into the ring. You’d think Sheamus or Sting would hurry on up and get to the ring to pin Rollins, no?

– The WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Rollins and Sting was all about the challenger making the most of the situation at the beginning, but eventually losing that momentum. We were shocked this one went as long as it did considering Sting’s in-ring limitations, but it could’ve been much worse. Rollins retaining was no surprise. Once Sheamus came out, we wondered if this was indeed the moment. Nope, just another failed attempt. He never got the chance since Kane returned in all of his masked glory to stop it from happening, getting Rollins all to himself. The Sheamus chokeslam pretty much sealed Mr. Money In The Bank’s fate on this night. We knew Kane was coming back one of these shows, so it’s good it happened here. It appears that he’ll be the new challenger for Rollins, since he seems bent on payback.

Results

• Kick-Off – Six-Man Tag – Stardust/The Ascension def. Neville/The Lucha Dragons via pinfall
• WWE Intercontinental Championship – Kevin Owens def. Ryback (Champion) via pinfall to become new Champion
• Dolph Ziggler def. Rusev (w/Summer Rae) via pinfall
• WWE Tag Team Championships – The Dudley Boyz def. Big E/Kofi Kingston (w/Xavier Woods) via DQ; New Day retain
• WWE Divas Championship – Charlotte (w/Paige, Becky Lynch) def. Nikki Bella (w/Alicia Fox, Brie Bella) via submission to become new Champion 
• Six-Man Tag – The Wyatt Family def. Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose/Chris Jericho via pinfall
• WWE United States Championship – John Cena def. Seth Rollins (Champion) via pinfall to regain Championship
• WWE World Heavyweight Championship – Seth Rollins (Champion) def. Sting via pinfall to retain 

Original Predictions Correct: 5/8