Csonka’s WWE Night of Champions 2014 Review

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

WWE Night of Champions 2014

OFFICIAL RESULTS
* Tag Team Title Match: Goldust and Stardust defeated The Usos via pin @ 12:50 to become the NEW CHAMPIONS [***]
* US Title Match: Sheamus © defeated Cesaro via pin @ 13:20 [***¾]
* IC Title Match: The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler © via pin @ 9:20 to become the NEW CHAMPION [**]
* Rusev defeated Mark Henry via submission @ 8:30 [**]
* Randy Orton defeated Chris Jericho via pin @ 14:50 [***]
* Divas Title Match: AJ defeated Paige © and Nikki via submission @ 8:45 to become the NEW CHAMPION [**¼]
* WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: John Cena defeated Brock Lesnar via DQ @ 14:10 [***¾]

~ Good opening video package for the show, and I also like how they are incorporating pat champions into the theme of the show.

WWE Tag Team Title Match: The Usos © vs. Goldust and Stardust: Still not a fan of the champions being introduced prior to the challengers. There was a great sequence late in the match where Jey Uso got revenge for the knee injury and just snapped and started to work over Stardust’s knee like a wild man. I appreciated that continuity because I was simple and it made sense. The match started slow, and then got into gear with a series of near falls and dives late. Stardust countered the top rope splash with knees, and got a roll up with the tights for the win. This was an overall good match to kick off the show. Not the best work by either team this year, but a good opener with the winner treating the titles like they meant something, and the Usos selling devastation with losing the titles. Fun Fact: On September 21st, 1992, Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham won the Unified NWA-WCW Tag Team Titles.

~ Dolph Ziggler and his goofy ass stunt double drink some diet Mountain Dews during their backstage interview.

WWE US Title Match: Sheamus © vs. Cesaro: While the feud has been booked poorly, and the effort by creative to get me interested has basically failed, I like both guys and have been looking forward to them facing off because they work well together. The funny thing is that with guys like this, they don’t need a story. They are big dudes that like to kick ass; so just book them as wanting to be the better man and they can do all of the work for you. Plus that works perfectly as the polar opposite of what they are doing with Miz and Ziggler. It broke down, in the best way possible, to them just beating the hell out of each other. Sheamus, who took a ton from Cesaro, got the desperation brogue kick and retained the title. Overall another good match here and better than the opener. While Cesaro lost, he loses nothing from a match like this. I still feel these guys have a better match in them (not that this was bad) because their styles mesh so well. I say we need to have Cesaro straight up destroy some low carders and do it again next month. We’re off to a good start overall for the show.

~ Big Show gave Mark Henry a pep talk and then went Rocky III and gave him some new gear.

~ Florida Georgia Line are out for commentary, they will be part of Tribute to the Troops.

WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Dolph Ziggler © vs. The Miz: Unfortunately Sandow and Truth are out for the match, hopefully they don’t get involved. WWE commentary is usually bad, but with Florida Georgia Line it actually got worse. Sandow got involved, and Florida Georgia Line got involved, leading to Truth chasing him off. Miz of course works the figure four with no work on the leg, because that’s what he does. Sandow returned and distracted Ziggler, leading to Miz regaining the title. The match was generally fine, but the horrible commentary and extra curricular activities did nothing to help and only hurt the match. While the booking is questionable, at least the US Title match felt important. I am pretty sure that the IC Title has never meant less.

Seth Rollins Accepts Forfeit – Issues Open Challenge: Rollins did the old heel deal where he gave Reigns to the count of 10 to come to the ring, and if he didn’t he’d have to accept the forfeit. The count hit 10, and Rollins graciously accepted the forfeit victory. He then issued an open challenge, and Dean Ambrose is back. They thankfully did NOT do the match, instead they had the big brawl leading to the parade of agents and security to try and break them up. That failed, because Dean Ambrose gives no fucks. They continued to brawl; finally security subdued Ambrose and used the riot control zip tie handcuffs. Very glad they didn’t do the match, we had the hot return and brawl with Ambrose, and hopefully we’re heading to a Hell in a Cell match. I love crazy Dean Ambrose.

Mark Henry vs. Rusev: They had Lilian Garcia sing the national anthem, setting the stage and hopefully getting the crowd deeply invested in Henry’s cause. More of a brawl than a match early on, which I felt worked well for the feud and the guys working it. I didn’t want to see a grappling bout between them. Rusev worked the back of Henry most of the time (after slamming him to the steps), Henry did manage to hit the world’s strongest slam, but Rusev would roll to the floor to escape. Rusev went over strong, and more definitively than I thought, and that’s a good thing. Not a great wrestling match, but Rusev’s strong booking is more important in some ways. The only thing I really didn’t like was that Henry tapped. I would have done the “passes out from the pain” finish to sell that Henry didn’t want to give up on America. The crowd was all “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH” when the anthem was done, and then (in the right way) completely deflated when another hero fell.

Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton: WWE finally realized what everyone did, that Jericho and Wyatt weren’t working well together, so they ended that on Raw and transitioned to this for the PPV. Hopefully we get a good match, because they are more than capable of delivering. Early on they did a lot of what I expected here, working off of their past and countering the signature stuff that they should know is coming. The finish saw Jericho stand on top for 5-minuts or so, and then jumped into an RKO for the finish. This was an overall good match, they work very well together, they played to the crowd and they delivered the right finish, but had a few good teases that made the live crowd believe that Jericho may win. I think that some liked it more than I did, which is cool, but with Jericho leaving and the quick switch to this match, I just never got invested into it.

WWE Divas Title Match: Paige © vs. AJ Lee vs. Nikki Bella: As usual, we play three way formula, where someone is always son the floor taking a nap. The ladies are back in the death spot this month, which sucks for them. They did a tower of doom spot, and you could hear them counting so loudly for lift off that you couldn’t miss it. AJ defeated Paige via submission to win the title back, and to give us our fourth Divas Title change between the two since April. Nikki was just in there to add something different (no Brie involvement), but the result is the same. AJ and Paige continue to skip around, play faux lesbian and trade the title back and forth. I don’t have an issue with the ladies; I have an issue with the booking because they haven’t done anything to make me care about these two. I think we had high hopes when Paige and AJ were set to feud, but the storytelling has just been poor. Overall this was a solid match with a crowd that didn’t seem to care all that much.

WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: Brock Lesnar © vs. John Cena: And here it is. Will WWE stay outside the box, or will they go back to their safety blanket? They did what I hoped they would do and mirrored the beginning of the Summerslam match, only with Cena hitting his finish in the first minute. While Cena got more offense and hope spots here, Lesnar was brutalizing him with an array of suplexes, strikes and also used the kimura several times to pick apart Cena. Cena got an AA, and then an STF late, which Lesnar countered into the kimura, continuing the trend from earlier in the match. Cena would then hit a third AA and then into the STF as Heyman screamed for Lesnar to escape. Cena hit the 4th AA, and then Seth Rollins ran out to cut that off and cause the DQ finish. Rollins was set to cash in, but Cena put a stop to that and ran him off. Lesnar hit an F5 on Cena and stood tall to close the show. One could guess that they are going to do Lesnar vs. Cena at HIAC due to the non-finish here. Much like last month a very physical, and different style than the average WWE match. What they are doing works so well for Lesnar, as the guy looks like an absolute beast. I liked the match, not nearly as much as last month, but I liked the work. The finish on the other hand, I hated that. I have never been and likely never will be a fan of finishes like that on PPV, especially in the main event. It just took away from what they did in the ring and needed the night on a sour note.

~ End scene.

~ Thanks for reading.

The Tirade
Overall this felt like an above average show that was designed more like a TV show, in that as a PPV it didn’t deliver like you’d hope, but it set up Rollins vs. Ambrose and Cena vs. Lesnar for Hell in a Cell. In many ways it was a fine show, nothing I’d call “bad” on it outside of the main event finish, and there was some good wrestling. I liked the brawl between Ambrose and Rollins, as well as the continued rise and domination of Rusev. The secondary titles, for the most part, continue to mean nothing, which is just more of the same unfortunately.

Overall the show was largely fine, but it just didn’t feel all that important.

Show Rating: 6.7

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

As a reminder, this is not a basic “how good was the show” number like a TV show, as I have always felt that a PPV is very different from a regular show. I have always judged PPV on how they built to a match, the match quality, crowd reactions to matches and angles, the overall booking, how the PPV leads into the future, PPV price and so on and so forth. I have added this in here for an explanation since so many have asked, and I have previously discussed it on podcasts. I understand that this may seem different, but that is how I grade. Obviously your criteria may be different.