WWE Night of Champions 2011 Results: Match-by-Match Breakdown

WWE Night of Champions is over and it is time to recap what we have seen. We saw two championships change hands, a few run-ins and a lot of sloppy endings to matches.

WWE has left us with more questions than answers, which may be exactly how they want it with another pay-per-view to sell in two weeks. Before we build toward Hell in a Cell, let's wrap up the Night of Champions.

At the end of the night, the most iconic moment may be this image of Mark Henry as the new World Heavyweight Champion. It was a sight that many of us did not expect to ever see, but it was hardly the most mind-blowing moment. It was certainly one of the more positive mind-blowing moments as Night of Champions provided a lot of questionable calls by the creative team.

The crowd in Buffalo was upset about some calls, while Twitter nearly exploded with disapproval and confusion throughout the night. There is certainly a lot of explaining left to be done. For now, we can analyze all that we saw and try to make some sense of it.

AirBoom Retains Via DQ, Missed Calls by Referee

Referee Rod Zapata would have a rough night as he made a few mistakes in the WWE Tag Team Championship match and paid for them. The Miz certainly let Zapata have it and it is well deserved.

R-Truth and The Miz were having a great match with AirBoom, the tag team of Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston. Suddenly, Bourne creates a noise with his hands to mimic a tag. Zapata counts as an actual tag, despite not seeing it.

Moments later, The Miz tags in R-Truth, but Zapata does not count the tag because he did not see it. I suppose that this time around, the sound of the tag doesn't count.

Even with those two mistakes, The Miz has Bourne lying on the ground, but barely gets a one-count from Zapata. The Miz then has enough and attacks the referee, causing a disqualification and a title defense for Kingston and Bourne.

Nothing speaks dividends to rebuilding a tag team division like having your champions get multiple breaks going their way and still only retain by winning via DQ. This did absolutely no favors to AirBoom and only added to Awesome Truth's calls for a conspiracy against them. It was obvious that we would see them again tonight. This was just a sloppy way to start the night.

Cody Rhodes Ducks Own Mask, Pins Former Friend

Cody Rhodes had been feuding off and on with Ted DiBiase for a little while now and it all came to a head at Night of Champions. These two had come full circle, aligning together for the first time and becoming World Tag Team Champions at this very event three years earlier. The two had a decent match, but weren't tearing the house down exactly.

In fact, there are reports of "We Want Ryder" and "Boring" chants. The match was rather tame until DiBiase forced Rhodes' mask off of his face. Rhodes has been seen using it in the past few months, but it was DiBiase who tried to use it as a weapon in this match. Rhodes ducked the shot and rolled up DiBiase for the three count and title defense.

There are a few problems here. For one, Cody Rhodes doesn't need a clean victory to beat DiBiase here and, while this likely leads to a rematch in two weeks at Hell In A Cell, it doesn't make DiBiase seem strong or screwed over.

The "pulling of the tights" was very minor and may not have been an actual tug. Even without that roll-up, DiBiase was about to disqualify himself if he connected with the weapon shot.

Dolph Ziggler Defends in Tough Fatal Four-Way

Dolph Ziggler and his United States Championship have been attached to one another for a few months. Ziggler retained on Sunday at Night of Champions to extend his reign to 92 days, the longest of any current reign. If he makes it to Hell In A Cell with the title, he will join The Miz's WWE Championship reign as the only two title reigns to last for more than 100 days in 2011.

Alex Riley had some good looks and seems to be a future United States Champion. John Morrison was mostly there for the sake of spots, but we knew that going in. Jack Swagger was there to tell a story with Ziggler and it was a good one. However, the story got a little bit confusing for a moment.

Vickie Guerrero helped Jack Swagger get his foot on the ropes and prevent Riley from getting the winning fall. Ziggler was angry that Vickie helped Swagger, but it is what has kept the title around Ziggler's waist.

Honestly speaking, if it were Morrison getting pinned by Riley, Vickie's help would only be to benefit her client Ziggler. Booker T mentioned a low blow on commentary, but this was a rare clean victory on the night, even if Ziggler threw Swagger away and took his pinfall.

Mark Henry Wins World Title...Seriously

I'm still shocked to see this, but in a good way. I wanted to see Mark Henry win because he deserved it and Randy Orton deserved to not be so super. Henry was able to use his slow and methodical pace to give a nice rhythm to the match. Henry stayed strong throughout and Orton was booked as a man giving a valiant effort.

There should be absolutely no complaints with this match. Orton gets grounded a bit by actually getting thrown around a bit. Mark Henry not only achieves what was unlikely a few years ago, but does it in convincing fashion. The ending left something to be desired to some, but I was absolutely fine with it.

With two weeks before Hell In A Cell, I'm worried that it might not last long. Will Orton get his rematch clause in there or will Sheamus and/or Christian throw their hat in as well?

Kelly Kelly with the Upset Upset...Again Again

Buffalo is still in shock that their hometown girl, Beth Phoenix, did not come away with the Divas Championship over Kelly Kelly. There was actual vested interest in the match from the crowd and legitimate disgust in the result.

We can anticipate there being riots in the city of Buffalo much like that in the movie Bruce Almighty, both from the actual movie and the real city's anger for being in that awful movie.

I said in previews of this match that Kelly Kelly needed to be legitimized as a champion in order to help Phoenix when she eventually gets the title. This would avoid Phoenix being a dominant champion without any worthy opponents.

The roll-up victory is not a glorious way to win, but this was a much better match than SummerSlam's edition of this rivalry. In fact, people I have spoken to have called this Kelly Kelly's best match of her career. It's hard to argue with that belief.

John Cena Defies Destiny as Fans' Eyes Begin to Roll

Many people were afraid that this result would happen. It did happen. Not a lot of people are happy about it, even those who rooted for John Cena to win. Cena is now a 12-time world champion and has been WWE Champion 10 times, two times more than any other man in WWE history.

Alberto Del Rio was decimated throughout the match and never seemed to be very in control of his first pay-per-view title defense. He mounted some offense, but his momentum was very scarce as it was the John Cena show for a while.

The ending is what bothers me the most. Not only does Del Rio no-sell a shoulder into the ring post, but Cena, who has torn a pectoral muscle in his career, no-sells Del Rio's cross armbreaker. He then is able to do his STF finisher, which ends up being the winning maneuver.

I've never been a fan of wrestlers with submission finishers tapping to other people's submissions unless completely necessary, which this wasn't. We knew Cena wouldn't tap to Del Rio, so why is it fine the other way around?

Also, just look at this photo. The move isn't even on very well. Del Rio's head is barely under any pressure from Cena. This is likely the weakest that a man has looked when Cena beat them for the WWE Championship and Del Rio's reign will be remembered as one of the weakest on record.

The COO Beats CM Punk Thanks to Anyone and Everyone

Before I get into the match, I have to speak on Michael Cole losing his voice during this match. Sure, we can all say that Cole losing his voice is a godsend, but Booker T and Jerry Lawler seemed like lost puppies on commentary without Michael Cole.

This is exactly what hurts a pay-per-view commentary team with Booker T and without Jim Ross. Two color commentators can't call a main event of a pay-per-view alone. A play-by-play guy is essential to tell a story and neither Booker nor Lawler decided to step up and switch to play-by-play. It was very disappointing.

With that said, this match was disappointing too. A match that was so heavily hyped and booked very well went awry when it needed ref bumps, multiple referees, conspirators, raspy-sounding authority figures, text messages, washed-up wrestlers and a sledgehammer to keep the peace. Punk lost after dealing with a lot, but Punk lost and had no reason to.

Punk is still owed a WWE Championship rematch, which would now be against John Cena. Cena/Punk III for Hell In A Cell could sell the show somewhat, but Del Rio would also get lost there.

Do you rush Del Rio's rematch clause and forget to build Punk's title shot or push his title match off some more to have Del Rio and Cena on a pay-per-view again? Punk doesn't need to be beaten by his boss, who hasn't wrestled in months, especially when he wants to be a world champion yet again.

R-Truth and The Miz even got involved, which meant they would try to screw Triple H. However, they also attacked CM Punk, which didn't make sense. John Laurinaitis prevented Triple H to get a cover once but not another time, which begs the question of why he would do that.

Kevin Nash seems to get a text from Johnny Ace, comes to the ring, isn't bothered by security despite being fired, and attacks both men. For all of that, I am still confused on why everyone is attacking everyone.

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