WWE Night of Champions: Can Alberto Del Rio Actually Beat John Cena?

In 13 days, WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio tries to defend his championship against John Cena at Night of Champions. For Del Rio, it has been a road of destiny that has led him to his first pay-per-view title defense. However, will there be an exit on that road around Buffalo? Are we looking at Del Rio as a paper champion? Are we less than two weeks from yet another John Cena world title reign? Critics, including myself, want to believe that Cena won't walk out of Night of Champions with the WWE Championship, but there have been few reasons presented to suggest that.

Del Rio began his climb to the title at Money in the Bank. On the same night that CM Punk earned his first WWE Championship, Del Rio won the RAW Money in the Bank briefcase. After nearly cashing it in that night on Punk and almost doing the same thing a few weeks later, Del Rio finally cashed in successfully in the waning moments of SummerSlam. After Punk became the undisputed WWE Champion, Kevin Nash attacked him, giving the opening for Del Rio to cash in and walk out of Los Angeles with the title.

Just 24 hours later, Del Rio, as the new WWE Champion, had to defend against former champion Rey Mysterio, honoring Mysterio's rematch clause. Del Rio managed to win the match and went on to injure Mysterio in the process. It only seemed fitting that Mysterio, who Del Rio feuded upon his debut in WWE, would be the opponent in his first title defense. This was the high point thus far for Del Rio's world title reign.

The rest of it has been terrible for our champion. While Punk's attention has been occupied by Kevin Nash, John Cena continues to gun for Del Rio. Cena called out Del Rio's gimmick, trying to allude to the fact that Del Rio's cars that he drives to the ring weekly are not his but rather rental cars. We can pretty much figure that part to be true for ourselves, but Cena tries to ruin the gimmick of another guy? Next thing I know, Cena will tell us that The Undertaker isn't actually a dead person.

Regardless of these marks in the armor of the champion, Del Rio has the skill, the momentum and the winning percentage to knock off Cena. Del Rio's finisher does him no favors, though. Del Rio's cross armbreaker is a destructive finisher that has been applied to some of the best in the WWE. So how will John Cena and the strongest arms in the company hold up to the cross armbreaker?

It is hard to imagine Cena tapping out to Del Rio at Night of Champions. Despite the fact that Cena has actually tapped out three times early in his career (look it up if you don't believe me), Cena has been indestructible since turning face. His marketing ability with his "Never Give Up" and "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" taglines would be contradicted by him tapping out to a submission. Del Rio has been injuring people and making people tap for over a year now to that move, but Cena will have to be the guy to power out of it, while Cena's STF will be incredibly powerful.

I can't honestly believe that all of Alberto Del Rio's hype will lead to a five-week title reign. It does him no favors and gives a 12th world title reign to Cena 28 weeks before his match with The Rock at WrestleMania 28. Two weeks after Night of Champions is Hell In a Cell, followed by the return of Vengeance three weeks later. In these five weeks, Del Rio could lose the belt, but it still shouldn't be to Cena. Since winning the title in a steel cage at Extreme Rules on May 1, John Cena has already had two reigns with the title. A title win at Night of Champions would give him three reigns in the previous 20 weeks, holding the title for about 70 percent of that time.

The simple way out of this predicament is to have Del Rio retain by disqualification. Cena gets his victory and his fans hate Del Rio that much more. That doesn't do any favors to Del Rio, who will still look weak and will still have to face Cena again, as well as CM Punk whenever he is done beating up senior citizens. If you want to have Alberto Del Rio as a genuine champion, have him pin Cena, even if it isn't clean. It did wonders for The Miz's title reign, even if he is looking for something to do ever since.

WWE has less than two weeks to convince us that Alberto Del Rio can defeat John Cena. Thus far, we have seen one attack from behind by Del Rio, Cena attacked Del Rio both emotionally and physically and Del Rio not show up at all last week. His absence is due to visa problems, but that won't be explained on WWE TV. Instead, Del Rio will look even weaker, looking like a coward while John Cena is pinning Wade Barrett in three minutes.

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