WWE Night of Champions 2014 Matches: Best Finishes for Each Bout on the Card
The finish of any match is absolutely key in its success.
A bad finish can damn an otherwise outstanding bout while a great finish can elevate the mediocre to legendary status.
Sunday night at Night of Champions, World Wrestling Entertainment will present its annual September pay-per-view extravaganza against a background devoid of hype or anticipation. This, despite a strong main event between John Cena and Brock Lesnar and a great card full of intriguing matches from an in-ring standpoint.
The success of the show as a whole may very well hinge on the finishes of contests and how excited fans are by each one. A poor finish, with a disappointing outcome is sure to turn fans further off of the product, something WWE cannot afford given the return of hit television series and the weekly competition that is the National Football League.
Each outcome, and how WWE Creative gets there, is of the utmost importance to the show's quality, to maintaining the audience and to the future of the company.
With that said, take a look at the best finishes for each of the Night of Champions matches.
United States Championship Match: Sheamus vs. Cesaro
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The most inconsequential match on the entire Night of Champions pay-per-view is the United States Championship match between Sheamus and Cesaro.
Cesaro, despite knocking off Rob Van Dam to become No. 1 contender to the once-prestigious midcard title, has lost regularly in the weeks leading up to the match, including contests against Dolph Ziggler and The Usos.
Sheamus, on the other hand, is a double-tough competitor who works hard, delivers consistently great performances and often does so while battling some sort of injury. Yet, for the quality of his work, he has been "rewarded" with very little of significance since returning back at the Royal Rumble.
It is difficult to watch to wrestlers as good between the ropes and Sheamus and Cesaro are be so woefully mismanaged and poorly utilized.
Best Finish:
The US title is a curse to anyone unlucky enough to hold it at this point. Both men are so much better than their place on the card indicates and holding that belt is only going to ensure one of them stays there.
The best finish is for Cesaro to defeat Sheamus and win the title, regardless of how that occurs, improving what has been an awful summer for the Swiss Superstar. While it would negate any opportunity for career growth, it would give him a second reign with the title he held early in his main-roster career and would restore some credibility that was lost when he was suddenly and inexplicably taken away from manager Paul Heyman.
WWE Divas Championship Match: AJ Lee vs. Nikki Bella vs. Paige
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If the second half of 2014 has taught us anything, it is that WWE has suddenly expressed renewed interest in its Divas division. For the second straight pay-per-view, the company has two strong programs featuring its female talent and both of those stories will intersect when Paige defends the Divas Championship against frenemy AJ Lee and Nikki Bella.
Paige and AJ have been engaged in a feud in which mind games have run rampant. Each woman has tried to get over on the other by reverting to bizarre acts of friendships, none of which were particularly genuine. They each succeeded in making the other uncomfortable and enjoyed varying degrees of success as a result.
Elsewhere on the show, Nikki Bella's betrayal of sister Brie and friendship with Stephanie McMahon has led to a sibling rivalry. Nikki is more selfish and self-centered than ever before and honestly believes that capturing the Divas title at Night of Champions will lead to a bigger, brighter spotlight on her than ever before.
Best Finish:
There is no way Nikki wins the title without Brie interfering in the match. The wife of former WWE World Heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan has been surprisingly reserved to this point but after being betrayed on such a grand stage at SummerSlam, there is no better way for Brie to avenge the backstabbing she endured than to prevent her narcissistic and egotistical sister from capturing the top prize in women's wrestling.
That leaves AJ Lee and Paige to battle it out over the strap. There is still far too much potential in Paige to take the title off of her so soon after she won it at SummerSlam. Expect to see Paige capitalize on interference from Brie to pin Nikki, not AJ, so that the feud between the talented in-ring competitors can continue into yet another month.
Mark Henry vs. Rusev (with Lana)
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Rusev's dominance in WWE has been put to the test over the last month, courtesy of former World Heavyweight champion Mark Henry. The World's Strongest Man has provided Rusev with the first real threat to his physical dominance. Henry has manhandled the Bulgarian Brute on several occasions and has been left standing, waving Old Glory high overhead, the recipient of a tremendous response by the WWE Universe.
Do not expect that to be the case come September 21, when Rusev attempts to add yet another former heavyweight champion to his list of victims when he meets Henry one-on-one.
There is far too much time and energy invested in Rusev to have his first pinfall loss come at the hands of a man that, as late as two months ago was not even a regular part of the show. Legitimized or not, Henry's best days are behind him and sacrificing everything that has been built to this point in regards to Rusev would be a mistake.
Best Finish:
Late in the match, the official is bumped or distracted, allowing Lana to repeat her actions from SmackDown a few weeks back and blind Henry with chalk/powder. From there, Rusev destroys him with his trademark superkick, allowing him to score a tainted pinfall victory and set up a rematch for Hell in a Cell in October.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos vs. Goldust and Stardust
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The heel turn by Goldust and Stardust rejuvenated both performers and catapulted them back into WWE Tag Team Championship contention. They needed the edginess and the sense of danger that they now possess to prevent them from falling into the trap of a comedic act.
Most importantly, The Usos needed new contenders after wrestling Luke Harper and Erick Rowan and RybAxel repeatedly over the course of four months.
Now, the two teams most responsible for the rebirth of tag team wrestling over the last year will square off with the right to reign atop the division and call themselves the very best.
Is it too soon for Goldust and Stardust to acquire the so-called "Cosmic Key" that is the tag team titles or is it the Usos' time to hand over the titles and reassume the role of challengers?
Best Finisher:
After months of showing tremendous resiliency and fighting from underneath to overcome the odds and retain their titles, the Usos meet their match in the form of the deranged and bizarre Goldust and Stadust, who win the gold cleanly in a tremendous wrestling match when Stardust pins Jey Uso, whose knee injury had been previously established.
Intercontinental Championship Match: Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz
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What was once a really strong, competitive rivalry between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz over the Intercontinental Championship has devolved into a comedic story in which Damien Sandow serves as Miz's stunt double and R-Truth regularly dons the tights of WWE's resident Showoff to fill the same role for the champion.
It is with great fear and trepidation that this writer predicts the finish of this contest, mainly because of the ridiculousness that could conceivably rear its ugly head at the conclusion on the match. Taking into consideration the fact that WWE Creative loves booking stupid, nonsensical finishes whenever a comedic angle or act is featured, the potential exists for a ludicrous finish to unfold at Night of Champions, in a match that has every opportunity to be one of the better and more competitive bouts on the show.
Crossing fingers and hoping that neither Damien Sandow nor R-Truth is pinned to necessitate the title change, here is a finish that would be much better.
Best Finish:
After several occasions in which Sandow got involved in the match, Truth takes him out at ringside, presenting a distraction that steals Miz's attention and allowing Ziggler to capitalize and finish off his top contender via pinfall with the Zigzag.
Said finish allows the angle involving the stunt doubles to be paid off, all the while leaving the actual competitors to wrestle the match to its conclusion.
Ziggler is a much more valuable champion at this point than Miz, whose Hollywood gimmick has been entertaining but has not caught on with audiences to the extent that WWE Creative had hoped it would.
Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton
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Two of the top stars of the last decade will square off in a match at Night of Champions that, for reasons only WWE Creative can answer, has been underwhelming in build and overshadowed by other more intriguing an interesting matches on the card.
Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton is a match that can, to quote the late, great Gorilla Monsoon, "be a main event in any arena in the country." Two former heavyweight champions and future Hall of Famers, they have been let down tremendously by a writing staff that was too preoccupied to come up with anything remotely interesting for them to do so they were thrown together to have a great pay-per-view match and nothing more.
That should be the case, although the finish will not be in doubt.
Best Finish:
With Jericho on his way out the door, his focus now on touring with his band Fozzy, Orton needs the win to help rehabilitate his star following his recent string of losses to Roman Reigns.
In a match sure to have plenty of counters and excellent sequencing, a finish that sees The Viper counter an attempt at the Code Breaker and end Y2J's night with the RKO is really the only way to properly end the match.
Do not be surprised to see a considerable amount of leg work on Orton's part, especially since Jericho's knee injury has played such a key role in the build to the match.
Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
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The September 15 episode of Raw featured some truly perplexing booking as Roman Reigns squared off with Seth Rollins in singles competition. Six days before, they were scheduled to do battle at Night of Champions. To make matters worse, Reigns beat Rollins cleanly, calling into question why anyone would, or could, possibly care about a rematch.
Reigns and Rollins are certainly facing an uphill battle in terms of generating intrigue or excitement for their match Sunday night, especially since fans have already seen it and just readily assume it is yet another stop on Reigns' journey to main event stardom.
The finish of Sunday's match, to set it apart from what fans were treated to on Raw and to motivate those same members of the audience to join the WWE Network for only $9.99 (!) a month, becomes paramount.
How will WWE ensure that fans are not disappointed by a bout involving two men so many fans expect to carry the industry into the future?
Let's take a look.
Best Finish:
Reigns won cleanly Monday night so that would seemingly make that a non-option for Sunday's bout. At the same time, it is even more unlikely that Reigns take a pinfall or submission cleanly at this point as WWE continues to push him to the top of the industry.
Never underestimate the presence of Kane. No matter how horrible he may be in the ring at this point, WWE seems hellbent on keeping him a key part of their main event storytelling. Expect to see him stick his nose in the match at some point, leading to a finish in which Rollins steals a win via pinfall that allows him to ride momentum into the end of the show, where he may be somewhat busy.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
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At SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar absolutely dismantled John Cena en route to his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a decade. It was such a one-sided affair that fans had never quite seen a pay-per-view main event unfold the way that one did. Lesnar beat Cena senseless, laying into him without mercy and ensuring that there were no doubts in anyone's mind as to who the better man was.
Night of Champions will be a completely different match, as indicated on the September 15 episode of Raw, during which Cena showed renewed aggression and passion while assaulting Lesnar and causing the Beast Incarnate to retreat, his nose broken.
The possibilities for the finish of the epic rematch are boundless.
Cena could easily defeat Lesnar cleanly, infuriating the fans who are sick and tired of seeing the white-bread hero overcoming much more interesting and captivating villains. Lesnar, in turn, could pin Cena for the second consecutive month, albeit in a much more competitive bout.
Neither of those outcomes is likely, however. They would be too simple, too predictable and if there is anything fans have learned from WWE over the last year, it is that they get great joy out of swerving the so-called "smart marks."
Which leads us to best possible finish for Sunday's main event...
Best Finish:
Over the last two weeks, Paul Heyman has made a big deal about getting Cena to embrace his inner evil, to join the dark side and reject everything he believes in. WWE Creative would not have introduced that element of the story unless it had plans to play it up at some time during Sunday's match.
No, that does not mean Cena is turning heel, nor does it mean that the match will serve as the emphasis for a later heel turn.
What it means is that Cena would allow his emotions to get the best of him, leading to a steel-chair attack or some sort of assault that gets him disqualified and leads to Lesnar being left unable to defend himself.
Enter Seth Rollins, who would cash in Money in the Bank, taking advantage of Cena's assault and winning his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Cena can argue that Rollins won the title because of his attack on Lesnar and that entitles him to a shot. Or something like that.
More importantly, it sets the stage for one final Cena-Lesnar showdown in the near future, perhaps as early as Royal Rumble in January.
WWE pops a buy rate, Cena looks like a world beater, Seth Rollins becomes the next heel to carry the title and Lesnar returns for revenge for one more major pay-per-view bout. Cannot ask for a single finish to accomplish more than that.
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