WWE Night of Champions 2014: Titles Most Likely to Change Hands at Event

As you might imagine, Night of Champions has traditionally been the setting for many new champions being crowned.

In fact, last year's show was the first in its history where only one belt changed hands. With three titles being won earlier this month at SummerSlam, it's probable that we'll see some new champions begin their reign with a successful defence, but it would be very surprising to see the night go by without at least one title being lost and won.

The most likely candidate to lose their title is the United States champion, Sheamus. In an unassuming run that has done little for the Celtic Warrior or the strap itself, we've seen the former WWE champion win the belt in a Battle Royal before spending most of his time appearing in multiman matches rather than defending his title.

Now, it seems that Cesaro will get his chance to dethrone Sheamus at Night of Champions, which will almost certainly produce an excellent match. These two work very well together, as anyone who has seen their many encounters on Raw and SmackDown in recent months will be able to attest to.

Frankly, the United States title at its present stature is beneath both Sheamus and Cesaro, but a fresh run for Cesaro would at least give him something to do outside of his seemingly endless and certainly aimless feud with Rob Van Dam.

Elsewhere on the card, whoever ends up challenging The Usos for its Tag Team Championship will likely come away with the belts. Its lengthy reign—the sixth longest in the title's lineage—has produced some great matches, but it has rarely featured any real rivalry outside of stand-alone bouts.

The extended series with the Wyatt Family over the summer seemed to be leading somewhere, but while in the ring, it was always very good. There was little to involve fans in the rivalry itself. The Usos would perhaps benefit from some time chasing, rather than defending the titles, but the question of who should take the belts from them is rather difficult to answer.

Stardust and Goldust seem like a prime choice, particularly after picking up a count-out victory over the champions Monday night on Raw. The losses that Slater Gator has picked up recently would seem to discount them, but the pair is so entertaining that a fluke win would be worth it if only to bag them a regular spot on Monday Night Raw.

At this point, a fresh pairing might be the best option for the tag team division. A multiteam match would be an ideal way of establishing a situation in which a newly formed team could vanquish the well-established champions—perhaps the pairing of The Miz and Damien Sandow that we saw Monday night could flourish into a tag team?

As far as an outside chance for a title switch goes, it wouldn't be all that surprising to see AJ Lee once again regain the Divas' title. Some have criticised the back-and-forth nature of AJ's feud with Paige, quite understandably, but it has done the job in terms of establishing the pair as being very evenly matched.

An even more unlikely scenario—albeit one that many fans would be wary of writing off entirely—is the all-too-real possibility of John Cena regaining the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar. You would think that Lesnar would be given a lengthy, dominating run as the world champion before dropping the belt to an up-and-coming star; however, Cena's ability to overcome the odds has known no bounds in the past. Could it be that the number 16 has a relevance beyond German suplexes?

Will Lesnar retain his title at Night of Champions? Will Cesaro begin the resuscitation of the United States Championship? Will the intercontinental title escape the pre-show? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.