WWE Night of Champions 2011 Review

WWE Tag Team Championship
Air Boom Vs The Awesome Truth

A decent showcase for both teams and the best tag team title match on PPV in a long time. Both teams are criticised for being merely two singles stars put together, but I've always thought that was the best way to inject life into a tag team division. The best tag teams of the last decade have almost all been such combinations – Angle and Benoit, JeriShow, Rated RKO, Edge and Rey – I could go on. Air Boom could easily join that list as long as they get good opponents and plenty of time to work with as they do here. Unfortunately this match was really about putting Miz and Truth over, leaving the champions looking a bit too weak despite the win and entirely absent at the end. Still, this was an enjoyable way to start the night.

Rating: 3 Stars

Intercontinental Championship
Cody Rhodes Vs Ted DiBiase

It's about damn time we saw Cody Rhodes back on PPV. After a fantastic feud with Rey Mysterio at the start of the season he's been completely absent, despite good TV feuds and even an Intercontinental Championship win. Ted has floundered ever since the Legacy split, held down in Raw's mid-card until he was drafted to SmackDown earlier in the year. This match has lots of back story both current and as long ago as 2008 and I'm glad all of it is alluded to rather than ignored as is sometimes the case with these kinds of feuds. The match moves at a decent pace, but Ted never really sells Rhodes' mask-based offence, creating an ending that comes a bit out of the blue. Considering he was looking fine, the sudden roll up on DiBiase should be embarrassing and sort of buries him in my eyes for the foreseeable future.

Rating: 3 Stars

United States Championship
Dolph Ziggler Vs John Morrison Vs Jack Swagger Vs Alex Riley

I wasn't sure what to expect of this, but boy did it deliver. Fatal 4-Ways can be a difficult situation for performers to keep a steady pace, give everyone equal spotlight and tell a good story. This match is a great example of a Fatal 4-Way that accomplishes all of this. I didn't think they'd be able to move the Swagger/Ziggler/Vickie storyline on without this turning into a mess, but instead they held Vickie back for the most part and just worked a good match with a clear narrative of competition. Morrison and Riley are both up to working in some cool spots involving all four men, and everyone had a moment to look like the potential winner without ever looking truly weak. The pace was great and built to a hot finish that makes sense and heightens the current drama. Exactly what matches like this should be like.

Rating: 4 Stars

World Heavyweight Championship
Mark Henry Vs Randy Orton

The Mark Henry push continues, right through Randy Orton and now the World Heavyweight Championship. I'm not sure how I feel about this win. Yes Henry is a veteran performer, yes he's done the best work of his career this year, yes he has earned a world title match – but a world championship? World championships shouldn't be just given to everyone, and while Henry has worked hard this year he is still a limited performer who does not wrestle at the standard I'd expect of a champion. This match was never going to be amazing, and it turned out as you'd expect – decent enough. It stands as one of Mark Henry's best matches in his career, but that isn't a good thing. The story of Orton not being able to hit his signature moves was well told and Henry was suitably aggressive, but the match was also slow and lacked the ringside destruction that has made Henry's work memorable over the summer. Perhaps this is being saved for a more hardcore re-match, but being left to wrestle entirely within the ropes does not do the World's Strongest Man any favours. Orton puts him over big with a dominant and clean victory, hopefully building up a rub for a young, fresh face such as Sheamus or Daniel Bryan in the future. Or maybe just Orton again in two weeks. Who knows?

Rating: 2.5 Stars

WWE Championship
John Cena Vs Alberto Del Rio

The two world title matches tonight have so much in common. For the past month the challenger has dominated the champion in the ring and on the microphone. Not once did the champion appear strong, and in this case, the WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio even looked weak walking into the arena. Classical Wrestling Logic predicts that these champions will overcome their strong challengers by some means, setting up a rematch in two weeks. It's boring, sure, but it makes sense and has happened on countless occasions. Except tonight. Tonight both challengers continued to look strong, so much so they are both now the world champions. For Henry and Orton this isn't too bad. Orton is beyond being truly buried and Henry is a relatively fresh main-event name that needed the rub from someone of Orton's calibre. However for Cena and Del Rio things are quite the opposite, and despite a good match that was well performed - this result is unforgivable.

I think Alberto Del Rio has been completely buried now, and it will take a huge effort to build him up again in the eyes of the fans. This is very similar to what happened to the last Raw MITB winner, The Miz, only he managed to hold onto his belt and even get a win at WrestleMania. For Del Rio, who only won the belt after a MITB cash-in, it was important tonight to establish that he could hang with the then 11 time champion Cena. No – actually it was important to establish that he could be a physical threat to Cena, even if he couldn't quite beat him this time. The way Cena no-sold the Cross Arm Breaker that has so far been built as a devastating and legitimate finisher is truly appalling. For all that Del Rio has accomplished this year – Royal Rumble Winner, WrestleMania head-liner, Money in the Bank Winner, WWE Champion – it is all tainted. He has not once proved to the WWE Universe that he can compete with anyone in the main-event not named Rey Mysterio and win decisively. This same issue plagued The Miz and Sheamus too, causing both young champions to fall down the card like a brick following their title losses. More than either of those men, Del Rio has the tools to be a long-term main-event talent for years to come but he needs to be handled right today or else history will look on him as a flash in the pan.

For Cena this win does nothing, and with The Rock looming ever closer as the weeks go by the need for Cena to even be in the title picture moves further and further away. Perhaps he'll put over Del Rio hard at Hell in a Cell, but at this point that may weaken Cena more than it helps Del Rio. Cena needs to be kept strong for WrestleMania without the title, but now he has it there is the problem of getting it off him without compromising that goal. The last title loss to Punk was fine because he put up a huge fight and only lost because of his good character. They wont get that same lightning to strike twice, and if they try to force it they might hurt not only Cena, but Del Rio and anyone else at the top of Raw as well.

Rating: 3 Stars

No Disqualification
Triple H Vs CM Punk

I felt this was happening too early, but I was prepared to forgive and forget if the match was amazing. Unfortunately it was not, and even if there is a rematch inside Hell in a Cell, the potential classic of a first-time Punk/HHH match is lost. This isn't to say the match was bad, it wasn't the best performed of the night, but Triple H always brings a mystique to the ring in recent years, an aura that gives this match a special feeling and atmosphere that other matches can't top. The blind-side attack by Punk during The Game's entrance injected some urgency into this charged contest, and I enjoyed their brawl around the arena that was punctuated by an awesome flying elbow drop from Punk through the announce table. One of the best things about the match was actually an accident – Michael Cole lost his voice! In the absence of Cole we got more King, and while not “good”, the commentary was a notch better than it would have been. Just as I was thinking the match could build into something classic however, it took a turn straight down. What happened after the high-spot was a very disappointing series of run-ins, ref-bumps and finishers that ended with Triple H pinning Punk in the middle of the ring. Now, I don't think this is the worst thing that could happen – it did take 4 finishers and 3 outside attacks to put Punk down after all, but I wish it had been the other way around. Triple H didn't need the win as much as Punk in the wake of loosing the WWE Championship. Not to mention the run-ins seemed to be aimed at screwing Triple H, even though this was hardly clear with R-Truth breaking up Punk pin attempts as well. While I'm sure the score isn't settled and we'll be seeing more in two weeks, this was a confusing misfire considering all the potential it had to work with.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

WWE Night of Champions 2011 Final Score: 3 Stars

In fact, that pretty much sums up this show: a confusing misfire. There was nothing bad, but nothing truly great either, making for a show that averages out well but probably won't be looked back on too often. The main-events failed to deliver on their potential thanks to the booking, the Del Rio/Cena match especially has put the WWE in an awkward situation where they could wind up doing long-term damage to a future icon. The same could be said for the Punk/HHH match, but I'll wait to see what happens next before I can read the writing on that wall. Thankfully the WWE mid-card is really strong at the moment, and I'm glad the creative team was forced to feature the likes of Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler whom they so often ignore on PPV. Will we see the Intercontinental Championship defended again on PPV this year? I hope so, but the WWE's track record with giving mid-card stars time to work with on the big stage is not very promising. This show was also held back by the ridiculous booking of the next event, Hell in a Cell, just two weeks from now. The knowledge of that means the results of this event feel only temporary – we could very well see rematches with the opposite result by the end of this month – so much of the intended impact is lost. We'll have to look back on this show once Hell in a Cell takes place before we can really tell how important Night of Champions 2011 will have been in the long run.