WWE Night of Champions 2013: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios for Top Superstars

WWE's Night of Champions event is supposed to focus on the people at the top of the company who are the best of the best.

However, not everyone gets to experience the best. For some people, things could end up taking a turn for the worse.

There are favorites to win every match at the event, but why stop our predictions there?

It's time to take it a step further and break things down a bit more by putting a spotlight on the different possible results that might be in store for these wrestlers.

Win, lose or draw, what are the best and the worst possible outcomes that the main event stars have mapped out in front of them?

Which routes are they going to take, and are there any other options on the table? Let's find out.

Rob Van Dam

Rob Van Dam has absolutely no direction right now in WWE, and chances are, this is going to continue.

His feud with Alberto Del Rio is not so much about him but more so about Ricardo Rodriguez.

As such, Van Dam's goal here should be to inject some kind of enthusiasm and life back into his career.

Winning the World Heavyweight Championship may seem, at a cursory glance, to be the solution to that problem, but it is actually a hindrance.

WWE has not put a lot of effort into building up intricate storylines for the title in quite some time.

Instead, it has coasted on random defense programs, which is not what Van Dam needs right now.

The best thing for him is to lose this match and to move on to feud with someone who can actually carry a storyline better than Del Rio.

If this is not Van Dam's night, he may find himself not only losing this match but continuing his feud with Del Rio and stretching out what is already bland into something even worse for Battleground.

Alberto Del Rio

Since I'm not particularly a fan of Alberto Del Rio, nor Rob Van Dam, the best possible scenario for my own personal enjoyment would be a cash-in from Damien Sandow.

The same cannot be said for Del Rio himself, though.

Something that is hurting Del Rio at the moment is his relationship with Ricardo Rodriguez.

It's a shame to say it, but this entire feud is revolving around Rodriguez rather than Del Rio, and when you're the champion, you should be the head honcho.

Feuding with Rodriguez longer will make Del Rio look as though he is not on the same level as other supposed main event stars.

After all, Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan have Triple H. Del Rio and Van Dam have Ricardo Rodriguez. The two situations are in no way comparable in terms of importance.

For Del Rio's sake, retaining the title and moving on to feud with someone that has no connectivity to Rodriguez will be beneficial.

Better yet, if Del Rio can be paired with someone who has a better track record at having a rapport with the audience and is a legitimate threat to the title, with or without merging this into Triple H's stable, things would look brighter.

On the other hand, there is a chance that Del Rio meaninglessly drops the World Heavyweight Championship to Rob Van Dam in a lackluster feud and follows it up with an equally lackluster continuation in typical rematch-clause fashion.

It has become obvious that there are much bigger fish to fry in WWE than Del Rio, and nobody in his current circle will help him fix that. The trick is to seek the remedy elsewhere.

CM Punk

CM Punk has the most basic path laid out in front of him out of everyone currently on the Night of Champions card.

There is only one result that will logically happen: Punk being victorious.

Anything short of getting his win back after his loss to Brock Lesnar and exacting vengeance upon Paul Heyman to end their feud will automatically be cast in the "worst possible outcome" territory.

This is as simple as it gets.

Punk is one of the biggest names in the company and he's even more valuable with John Cena missing from injury, so the best thing for both himself and WWE is to come out of this match looking strong.

Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman

Let's be perfectly frank here. There is no way that Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman are winning this match.

The entire purpose behind the Intercontinental Championship not being defended is to allow Axel to lose without dropping the title.

It's a shame that WWE had to go against the whole concept of the Night of Champions pay-per-view by doing this, but the creative team made its bed and now it has to sleep in it.

As a result, keeping the title even with a loss is a built-in best-case scenario for Axel.

The problem for Heyman, sadly, is that he has no best-case scenario in the cards.

Heyman will get his comeuppance when both he and Axel lose this match to Punk and afterward, the two will have to dust themselves off and move on.

Strictly from a storyline perspective, the worst thing that could happen to these two would be utter humiliation, losing the match and dropping the title.

At least they can be thankful that the latter of those three doesn't seem to be the direction the Fates have decided to go.

Randy Orton

Despite being the WWE champion and likely about to retain his title at Night of Champions, Randy Orton is in an oddly bad spot.

The storyline of this feud is anchored by Daniel Bryan's competence being screwed over by Triple H, not that Orton is simply the better man.

As such, Orton is going to have to look like the weaker person in this match to sell the idea that Bryan is the proper champion.

If done well, Orton will retain his title and not look like a complete joke in the process. He'll still look like a rightful champion—just not as good as Bryan.

However, if this is done the wrong way, Orton will indeed be made to look like a failure.

There's a fine line that has to be walked here, and the execution depends on what WWE's goals are.

Does WWE value Triple H's power more than Orton's legitimacy as champion?

Whenever a champion is not the motivator of a feud, there's a risk he will be given the short end of the stick in order to further the other "more important" people.

To avoid Triple H looking good at the expense of both Orton and Bryan, Orton needs to wrestle a great match and merely be saved by heel tactics and cheating and not become a mindless, worthless stooge.

Daniel Bryan

When fighting an uphill battle, a triumphant jump over that hurdle is the ultimate goal.

Obviously, the best-case scenario for Bryan would be to win back the WWE Championship and finish the pay-per-view celebrating. But that is not realistically going to happen.

Instead, the more likely positive outcome is that Bryan will be booked to look really strong against Orton and almost win the title but get screwed over in the end.

That way, this program continues but Bryan saves face. It will look as though he's still the proper champion, with the victim card being played up until he can fulfill jumping over those hurdles, and it will have all been done to put him over even more.

If worst comes to worst, Bryan will find himself not only losing but looking bad in the process.

There is absolutely no reason for Bryan to be booked as incapable of beating Orton, and nothing good can come out of that situation.

Doing so would only hurt Bryan's credibility, and since this entire feud is dependent upon Bryan being worthy of the title, the program itself would suffer in turn.

As this is the one basket that WWE seems to be putting all their eggs in, it cannot afford for that to happen.

Otherwise, the company's next pay-per-view, Battleground, will end up looking like it lost a war before it even begins.

What are your thoughts going into Night of Champions? Which of these Superstars will leave with their heads high and which ones will walk out with their tail between their legs?

Tell us what you're thinking in the comments below!

Anthony Mango is the owner-operator of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment as well as the host of its YouTube podcast show Smack Talk. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.