WWE Night of Champions Review
September 21, 2015
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
With television ratings hitting all-time lows for both RAW and Smackdown, it was interesting to observe a lull of interest in the WWE product after a strong SummerSlam weekend.
While the main focus of Night of Champions was the pitch of Seth Rollins defending not one but two championships in the same night, it was pretty clear a lot of the focus was going to be on the 56-year-old Steve “Sting” Borden headlining a WWE PPV in 2015.
After a somewhat decent showing earlier this year at WrestleMania against Triple H, we were suddenly graced with his presence following SummerSlam and sold the idea that he was ready to take on the reigning and defending WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins. Despite a pretty lackluster effort, the aura of Sting is quite powerful (as evident by another record-breaking night for us on Wrestleview with the amount of people following our live coverage) and Sunday night was going to be interesting regardless.
Sting shows his age in the main event
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wincing when Sting suddenly collapsed in the middle of the ring during a WWE Pay Per View/WWE Network Special Event in 2015. I had questions about what we were going to get out of Sting physically at WrestleMania earlier this year. Sunday seemed to be going well until a corner powerbomb seemed to completely daze the WCW legend and force Rollins to stall for time for a significant amount of time.
It’s not that Sting can’t “go” anymore. Tito Ortiz just fought in a cage for Bellator this past weekend at age 40. Yet at age 56, it sure doesn’t seem like a good idea for a guy like Sting to be out there taking big bumps the way he did on Sunday night in Houston – including a dive to the outside and crashing through an announce table at ringside. When you are waiting for something to go wrong at any moment, it probably isn’t a good idea.
The match itself was fine. Rollins worked hard to make Sting’s offense look like a million bucks. The tease at the end with Sheamus cashing in and the return of Kane was fine. Rollins had to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday night. It was a nice bridge to Hell in a Cell, which now has a Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker main event. We’ll see where they go next with Rollins. Sting may need to just call it a day.
Seth Rollins wrestles back-to-back in Houston
With all the strange narrative setting from the Ring of Honor fans about WWE “stealing” the Jay Lethal idea to use with Seth Rollins at Night of Champions, it was nice to see them go the opposite direction and have Rollins defend both the WWE United States and World Heavyweight Championships back-to-back. Cena winning back the title makes sense and could possibly spark the return of the Open Challenge that was quite popular this year. It wasn’t the best outing between the two, but it was fine for what it was.
Quick Thoughts
* I really enjoyed the grumpy heel work by Chris Jericho in his return on Sunday.
* It feels way too early to be putting the Divas Championship on Charlotte.
* The New Day is endlessly entertaining. Xavier Woods was the star of the show.
* I’m not sure how much longer WWE can sell me on Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler.
* Kevin Owens and Ryback had a really good and physical opening match.
Overall Impression
With some pretty lackluster television the last few weeks, WWE always finds a way to put forth a strong effort with these PPV/Special Events on the WWE Network. I’m more interested where we go from here with Sting, especially his physical health. Go out of your way to watch Ryback vs. Owens, the six man tag and Rollins vs. Sting.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you thought of Night of Champions in the comments.
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