WWE Night of Champions 2015 Results: Top Highlights and Low Points
WWE Night of Champions 2015 is in the bag, and it's time for us to look back on the results of what happened and start analyzing all of the positives and negatives.
For an annual pay-per-view in which every championship is on the line, it's easy to say the expectations can be pretty high. Factoring in a main event that includes a legend like Sting fighting for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship just upped the ante even more for this edition.
Going into this event, many fans probably wanted to see several title changes in addition to the best possible matches for their money, even if a championship was not on the line.
The potential was there, as Seth Rollins has been one of the best performers of the year and pulled double duty, while the return of The Dudley Boyz to face the hottest tag team going today—The New Day—seemed like a surefire recipe for fun.
And lest we forget, the Divas Championship match featured the longest reigning titleholder for this belt's lineage against the daughter of one of the biggest legends in the business, while we also saw a war between six men who make up two very strange, troubled "families."
So with all that being said and the event over and done with, what was the end result? Which segments tanked, and which ones will be praised in retrospect?
Presented to you in order of appearance, here's a match-by-match breakdown of the night's highlights and low points.
Highlight: Cosmic Wasteland vs. Neville and The Lucha Dragons
1 of 8
The general rule of thumb as far as kickoff matches go is that they can't really be held to the same standard as the rest of the card, as they're clearly not anywhere near as important.
As long as nothing crazy happens and the match is entertaining, can you really ask for anything else?
Thankfully, this one hit both marks.
The Ascension provided some power, while Neville and The Lucha Dragons were able to get in some high-flying maneuvers to quicken the pace, which meant the show was able to start off with quite a bit of energy.
This sextet has good chemistry together both in terms of in-ring styles and gimmicks, offering something a little weirder with the superhero-esque vibe held over from SummerSlam.
Another positive for this match was the outcome, as The Cosmic Wasteland desperately needed to win. Since the stable formed, Stardust and The Ascension haven't had the best luck, so if WWE wants the audience to take this group seriously, they can't continue to lose.
Overall, this was a good means to utilize people who aren't in any title scenes and kick the show off with some solid action.
Highlight: Kevin Owens Wins Intercontinental Championship
2 of 8
It's hard to criticize someone like Ryback—a man who has tried so hard and hit several roadblocks on his way to the Intercontinental Championship—without feeling bad, but it would be an exaggeration to say his title reign has been fantastic.
Kevin Owens, on the other hand, has had an amazing year in 2015. It's easy to forget at times that he made his in-ring debut in NXT—not the main roster—in December of 2014, and by February he was the champion of the brand.
Since then, he's gone on to prove himself capable of handling various types of feuds and the responsibility of being a champion, so it makes sense for him to take priority over Ryback, who has struggled.
The match itself wasn't bad, either, although it was kind of odd to see Owens grounding Ryback as if he was a high-flyer and working on his elbow as the dominant strong man. Normally, The Big Guy is the powerhouse, but he was the underdog here.
Going forward, there is a lot more potential for the Intercontinental Championship around the waist of Owens, so this was a step in the right direction.
Low Point: The Soap Opera
3 of 8
When WWE executives themselves are OK with Dolph Ziggler cutting a promo about how it's time to end the soap opera nonsense, it's a good sign that the plug needs to be pulled on this feud.
Ziggler and Rusev have enough chemistry together to be able to make a decent match despite the flaws of this program, but in the grand scheme of things, nothing at this event was good enough to justify the anguish to set it up.
For months now, the WWE Universe has had to watch Lana and Summer Rae scuffle on the outside while Ziggler and Rusev both look like chumps in some fashion or another. Rather than build all four of these entertainers up, WWE has made all of them look worse off than they did before this started.
Clearly, this was going to be a mixed tag match, but Lana's injury prevented things from going down that way. Instead, this match was just a combination of what already happened at WrestleMania and SummerSlam.
If this was the resolution to months of bad storytelling, the end doesn't justify the means. If it wasn't, and this is going to continue, then we all need to bury our heads in the sand and avoid what happens at Hell in a Cell.
Highlight: WWE Tag Team Championship Match
4 of 8
In September of 2014, if you were to be told that The New Day and The Dudley Boyz would be facing off for the tag titles at Night of Champions and that they would work well together, would you believe it?
Here we have three goofballs with a trombone and a tag team that has been in TNA for such a long time that they potentially could have never come back, but as ridiculous as this feud has been, it's entertaining.
The New Day is great at playing up its heel persona, as exhibited here with how it controlled the match. Every time The Dudley Boyz came back, the crowd was eating it up, but when the babyfaces were down, the audience wasn't bored with it, either.
It can be argued that the end of the match was a disappointment to those expecting a title change, but the post-match 3D through the table was a means to make up for that and pop the crowd again.
Now that The New Day cheated to retain, WWE has set up a rematch, most likely at Hell in a Cell, in which The Dudley Boyz will probably win the belts. This is as basic as you can get for storytelling purposes, but this example has proven yet again that the formula works.
Highlight: Divas Championship Match
5 of 8
Fans who have followed professional wrestling for more than a handful of years could have called this coming from a mile away, so to an extent, there will be fans who disliked how predictable it was.
Setting that aside for a moment and just looking at this from an outsider's perspective, someone watching this for the first time probably would eat this up.
The story was simple, but effective: The cheating heel couldn't resort to cheating to win, so the babyface was able to pull out the win and put an end to Nikki Bella's historically long title reign.
Another example of this back-to-basics storytelling was the concept of Charlotte's injured leg. Throughout the match, it was up in the air as to whether or not she'd be able to perform her finishing maneuver, but she fought back, wrapped Nikki in a "figure-eight leglock" and forced her to tap.
It was a feelgood moment with Ric Flair and the rest of Team PCB celebrating with Charlotte, and fans of the Divas Revolution should be happy with this outcome.
Middle of the Road: Chris Jericho Revealed as Mystery Partner
6 of 8
There will likely be a wide range of opinions on Chris Jericho as the mystery partner for this match.
If you were expecting someone like Erick Rowan, you're likely to be happy with the outcome. On the other hand, if you really wanted it to be Daniel Bryan or The Rock, this reveal could have been too big of a disappointment for you to look past.
Jericho has more than enough credibility behind him to warrant his inclusion in this match as far as star power goes, and he's always on his A-game, trying to perform the best he can.
However, is he really the best choice to fight alongside Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose? He doesn't exactly fit with their style, so while The Wyatt Family looked like a true unit, Jericho seemed like a random third wheel.
Even his history with Bray Wyatt was long enough ago that a good portion of the audience probably doesn't remember it, nor was it particularly enthralling enough to be unforgettable.
The same mentality applies to the quality of the match. It's hard to imagine that people will remember this and speak super-fondly of it for years to come. Still, wasn't it good enough for a B-level pay-per-view?
There were plenty of worse options WWE could have gone with for the mystery-partner angle and this feud in general, but there were potentially better ones, as well. Then, when you factor in how Jericho lost, the people who were excited to see him might be disappointed, while those who didn't want him in the match could have been won over.
It's an odd situation, and your mileage may vary on whether this was a highlight or a low point, so make sure you leave your comments below to express those thoughts!
Highlight: United States Championship Match
7 of 8
Of course, there will be people who criticize this match as a typical "lol John Cena wins" scenario, but is that the biggest problem in the world?
As the United States champion, Cena has had arguably the best title reign of anybody in the company for this year, save for Seth Rollins with his WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
If Cena's having the belt back means that his "open challenge" concept continues, that's a win. If it also means that the belt won't be overlooked as the secondary thing for Rollins to never defend, then that's another positive.
Another aspect that shouldn't be ignored is the story being told at this pay-per-view. Ever since it was announced that Rollins would wrestle two matches, it had been teased that he could potentially lose both of his belts.
Seeing the title change happen here signified that the possibility of that happening was very real. If Rollins had retained, it would have killed the momentum of such an idea.
The match was perhaps not the best the two have ever had, but it was more than adequate and did what it was supposed to do.
Highlight: WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
8 of 8
Sting's participation in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match was sure to be interesting, and this match delivered.
At several times, it seemed as though Sting had it in the bag, but it wasn't just to tease the audience but rather to build up legitimate anticipation for when it would come to fruition.
Then, of course, Seth Rollins stole the victory away. Boo! However, just like in the Tag Team Championship match, the post-fight festivities gave the crowd something extra.
Sheamus came out to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase, which always gets a pop from the WWE Universe. Then Kane made his surprise return to both inflict pain on Rollins and Sheamus.
This could have ended with Rollins simply retaining after a good match and the show fading to black, but there are now more questions that need answering, which is why everyone needs to tune in to Monday Night Raw.
That is exactly how WWE should book events pretty much all the time: giving people quality entertainment that sets up things for the future.
Sting did his job as the contender, Rollins did his job as the villainous champion and Sheamus and Kane were the cherries on top. In the end, this event finished strong.
What do you think were the best and the worst moments of the pay-per-view? What are you most excited about heading into Hell in a Cell?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
.jpg?w=600 "Raw Results and Grades 🔠")
