Night of Champions 2011 on September 18th, 2011
Opening Match: WWE Tag Team Titles: Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne © vs. The Miz and R-Truth
Bourne connects with a flying double stomp on Miz. Booker T forgets Truth’s name on commentary. Bourne snaps off a headscissors on Truth and Air Boom land stereo dives to the floor. In the ring, Truth finds an opening for his team and the heels isolate Bourne. He escapes the Skull-Crushing Finale and makes the tag. Kofi connects with a springboard lariat on Miz and hits the Boom Drop. He follows with the SOS for a nearfall. Truth provides a distraction, allowing Miz to plant Kofi with a DDT. Bourne comes off the top with double knees on Miz and connects with a spin kick. Miz responds with another DDT for a two count. Truth tags in but the referee doesn’t see it. Miz hits the Skull-Crushing Finale on Bourne but the referee is too busy arguing with Truth. Miz shoves the referee out of frustration, causing a disqualification at 9:49. While I’m not thrilled with the finish, I have to admit that it was executed well. Miz and Truth came off as justifiably frustrated and hopefully this leads to a rematch down the line. Bourne and Kofi seem like a natural team and this match could have went somewhere had it not been for the finish. **½
Miz and Truth push around the referee after the match and blame their loss on the conspiracy against them. Truth justifies putting his hands on an official by saying that it wasn’t a referee, it was a conspirator.
Match #2: Intercontinental Title: Cody Rhodes © vs. Ted DiBiase
They begin with some chain wrestling and DiBiase lays in a boot. He connects with a dropkick and goes after Rhodes’ facemask. Rhodes answers with the Beautiful Disaster and takes control with a gourdbuster. DiBiase avoids a charge and hits a backbreaker. He misses a dropkick and Rhodes regains the advantage. DiBiase comes back with a lariat and a flying knee strike. He hits a spinebuster and blocks the Beautiful Disaster with a dropkick. They battle up top and DiBiase throws Rhodes to the canvas. DiBiase takes off the facemask but Rhodes sneaks in a quick rollup to retain his title at 9:42. There’s really not much to say about this match. They wrestled for about ten minutes and it was fine. However, for two men who used to be tag team partners, the action was too mechanical and sluggish. **
Christian makes his way to the ring. He makes it clear that he wants to face the winner of Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry. Sheamus interrupts and points out how much Christian likes to complain. Sheamus says that he’ll help Christian get another title shot if Christian will give him a title shot when he wins the belt. Actually, that last sentence was all a ruse, as Sheamus lays out Christian with the Brogue Kick.
Match #3: United States Title: Dolph Ziggler © vs. Alex Riley vs. John Morrison vs. Jack Swagger
Riley takes down Ziggler with a clothesline and throws him to the outside. He hits an STO on Swagger but misses a plancha and collides with the steel steps. Morrison lands a dropsault onto Swagger but gets hip tossed to the floor. Ziggler and Swagger square off in the ring. Riley hits a TKO on Swagger. Ziggler spends too much time yelling at Vickie and falls victim to a springboard enzuigiri from Morrison. Ziggler responds with a leaping bulldog. Riley leaps to the top rope but gets german suplexed to the canvas by Morrison. Swagger throws Ziggler off the top rope and across the ring. All four men are down. Morrison hits Swagger with a tornado DDT and follows with a standing spanish fly on Riley. He finds knees on Starship Pain. Swagger and Ziggler apply stereo submissions. Riley hits an implant DDT on Swagger for a nearfall. Morrison misses a springboard kick and Swagger plants him with a gutwrench powerbomb. Ziggler pushes Swagger aside and covers Morrison to retain his title at 8:18. The interactions between Ziggler and Swagger made this match much more interesting. I found Riley to be uncharacteristically tolerable here and Morrison looked solid as usual. The match itself was too short to be anything special, but I think these four made the most of their situation. **¾
Match #4: World Heavyweight Title: Randy Orton © vs. Mark Henry
Orton unloads a barrage of strikes to knock Henry down. He lures Henry to the floor and the big man is not happy. Back in, Henry shrugs off an RKO attempt and connects with a boot. Orton avoids the World’s Strongest Slam and applies a sleeper. Henry powers out of the hold and punches Orton to the outside. He takes control in the ring, bending Orton’s back across the ringpost. Henry hits a big splash and continues to work over the midsection. Orton avoids another splash and connects with corner punches. Henry answers with the World’s Strongest Slam for a nearfall. Frustration is starting to set in for the challenger. Orton blocks a vader bomb and hits a basement DDT. He sets up for the RKO but Henry rolls to the apron. Orton hits a rope-assisted DDT for a two count. Henry plays defense and kicks out Orton’s leg. They stare each other down and Henry shrugs off an RKO. Henry hits the World’s Strongest Slam to become the new World Heavyweight Champion at 13:05. Henry is the World Heavyweight Champion and I don’t mind at all. I never thought I’d type that last sentence. However, these two worked an incredibly smart match that really held the crowd’s attention. Throughout the match, Henry became increasingly frustrated with his inability to keep Orton down. When Henry finally learned his lesson and shifted to a defensive strategy, he was able to pick up the win. I could see a few more rematches happening and if that’s the case, they have plenty to build off of after this contest. ***
Henry grabs a microphone and says that no one believed he would become world champion. This is his moment and he’s not sharing it with anyone. Henry claims that he’s going to be the most dominant champion of all time.
Match #5: Divas Title: Kelly Kelly © vs. Beth Phoenix
Kelly flips out of an armdrag and snaps off a hurricanrana. She applies a headscissors in the ropes. Phoenix catches her with a gutbuster and takes control. Kelly fights back with a bulldog. Natalya and Eve start brawling at ringside. Kelly tries a few quick pin attempts to no avail. Phoenix connects with a clothesline and hits a superplex. Both women are down. Kelly sneaks in a sunset flip to retain her title at 6:24. While this was nothing groundbreaking, they took the match seriously and had a couple of nice exchanges. The crowd even had a vested interest in the contest due to this pay-per-view being held in Phoenix’s hometown. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought this was much better than the usual outing from the divas. **
Match #6: WWE Title: Alberto Del Rio © vs. John Cena
Apparently Cena stole Del Rio’s car or something like that. Cool. The crowd is split as they feel each other out. Cena hits a bulldog but Ricardo Rodriguez stops his momentum by tripping him. The referee bans Rodriguez from ringside. Del Rio avoids a charge and lays in a couple of kicks. He comes off the top rope with a double axe handle. Cena hits a gutwrench suplex followed by a fisherman suplex. Del Rio responds with a shoulderbreaker and takes control. They both connect with a clothesline and fall to the canvas. Cena charges at the champion but runs into another clothesline. Del Rio misses a baseball slide and falls to the floor. Cena suplexes him back into the ring. Cena hits a side slam and adds the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Del Rio stops his momentum with a backcracker. Cena avoids a cross armbreaker and connects with a dropkick. He goes up top but Del Rio catches him with a springboard kick. Cena dodges another kick but runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Del Rio misses a charge and collides with the ringpost. Cena comes off the top rope with a leg drop for a nearfall. Del Rio hits a german suplex and lands a top rope senton for a two count. He applies a cross armbreaker but Cena impressively powers out. Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment. Rodriguez runs back out but Cena takes care of him. Cena applies the STF to become the new WWE Champion at 17:30. These two had great chemistry together and produced some highly entertaining back and forth action. There wasn’t an epic story behind this match or anything. However, Del Rio just became champion while Cena is always a threat to win the title, so there was a genuine feeling that anyone could win. While I’m not in love with Cena winning the belt back already, Del Rio came off as his equal tonight and looked strong despite the loss. They stayed away from any wacky overbooking and gave the match enough time to develop, leading to a worthwhile encounter. ***¼
Match #7: No Disqualification: CM Punk vs. Triple H
If Triple H loses, he will also lose his position as COO. Punk attacks before the opening bell. He throws Triple H over the barricade. Triple H responds by throwing Punk over the announce table. They tease finishers on top of the announce table. Punk rushes back into the ring and challenges Triple H to meet him in the ring. They exchange punches. Punk misses a running knee strike and falls to the floor. Triple H slams his left knee into the ringpost. Punk uses his right knee to connect with a running knee strike but gets sent over the barricade. Triple H jumps off the barricade and scores with a double axe handle. They brawl into the crowd as Booker T gets progressively worse on commentary. Punk throws a garbage can at Triple H and now they’re near the entrance set. Triple H catapults Punk into part of the entrance set. Punk back drops him onto the concrete floor and lands a dive off of a platform. Back in the ring, Punk hits Triple H across the back with a chair. He props the chair in the corner but Triple H catches him with a spinebuster. Triple H throws Punk into the propped chair and goes back to work on the left knee. He hits Punk’s knee with a chair against the ringpost. Triple H gets sent into the steel steps. Punk connects with a knockout kick and puts Triple H through an announce table with a top rope elbow drop. Both men roll back into the ring. The Miz and R-Truth run out and attack them. Miz hits the Skull-Crushing Finale on Triple H while Truth lays out Punk with a jumping flatliner. They drag Punk’s arm across Triple H but it’s only a nearfall. Miz and Truth attack the referee for only counting to two. John Laurinaitis tries to bring out help. Triple H and Punk clear the ring. Triple H hits a Pedigree but there’s no referee. Laurinaitis stops an incoming referee from entering the ring. Punk hits the Go 2 Sleep but Truth breaks the count. Triple H is able to hit another Pedigree for a nearfall. Kevin Nash makes his way through the crowd. Nash punches both Punk and Triple H. He tries to hit a jackknife powerbomb on Triple H but Punk attacks him. Nash lays out Punk with a jackknife powerbomb and clears an announce table to put Triple H through. Triple H hits Nash with a sledgehammer and follows with a Pedigree on Punk for the win at 24:11. These type of main events haven’t been present in WWE for quite some time. We saw a small dose of this kind of main event at Money in the Bank, but this match featured much more overbooking. First of all, the portion of the match with just Triple H and Punk was excellent. They didn’t rely too much on weapons and Punk’s dive through the announce table came off well. Once everyone started interfering, the match nearly turned into a segment. However, the Punk/Triple H storyline is an intricate one, and the last five minutes of this match did a pretty good job of bringing together all of the elements of the feud. With another pay per view right around the corner, I’m not too bothered by the run-ins at the end and I think the importance of this match will be based on where the story goes from here. ***¼
Overall: I would have an incredibly difficult time recommending that anyone spend $44.95 on a pay per view replay. So let’s look at Night of Champions 2011 in regards to a DVD purchase. The first three matches on the card all had potential, but none of them received enough time to develop into anything special. However, I was pleasantly surprised with both main event title matches. Mark Henry put in a solid effort in his match against Randy Orton and somewhat convinced me that his title reign won’t fall flat. Although Alberto Del Rio lost his title after just recently winning it, he came off as legitimate as ever despite his loss against John Cena. Finally, the main event, while not for everyone and extremely overbooked, effectively got across the story that they were trying to tell. I can’t give this show a strong recommendation based on match quality. However, if you’ve been interested in the WWE product as of late, this show might be worth checking out on DVD.