WWE Night of Champions: Evaluating Each Title's Build Ahead of the PPV

Night of Champions is regularly dubbed as the one night of the year in which each one of the company’s championships is placed on the line.

As a result, it’s important that the WWE effectively hypes each title match, given the theme of the gimmick pay-per-view. While other shows—such as Extreme Rules, Hell in a Cell or TLC—can rely on exciting stipulations to sell themselves, Night of Champions cannot. Instead, it’s the importance and prestige of the titles on the line that must act as the event’s main selling point.

And perhaps the easiest way to do that is to book meaningful feuds around each championship, thus demonstrating the desire in each superstar to get their hands on one of the straps.

So has the WWE been successful in building this year’s Night of Champions?

Or are we anticipating a show with little significance or incentive to tune in to?

This article takes a look at the build for each of the five major titles in the company, assessing how well the company has booked these feuds in the five weeks since August’s SummerSlam.

Tag Team Championsip

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The biggest story heading into the tag team title bout between the Usos and the ‘Dusts is the recent heel turn of the latter pair of brothers.

And for me, the way in which that turn was instigated was perfect for Night of Champions. Four weeks ago, Jey Uso’s leg injury saw him and his partner counted out in their title match with the ‘Dusts. But Goldust wasn’t having any of that.

Bitter about the way in which he and Stardust had lost their “one opportunity at those tag team titles”, he demanded an instant rematch. After the Usos refused, Gold and Stardust snapped, turning on the champions in a cold-blooded beatdown.

The fact that the ‘Dusts were willing to change their collective persona in their bid for the belts certainly showcases the titles’ importance.

Since then, though, the story has fallen by the wayside somewhat. Aside from a chair attack from the Cosmic Kids, all we’ve really seen is a variety of singles and tag matches involving either the champions or the challengers.

Perhaps the writing team should have focused more on the desperation of the 'Dusts to win the belts in order to make this angle more gripping. Either way, though, it’s a solid enough backstory and promises to be an exciting clash between two pairs of excellent workers.

United States Championship

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The path of the United States Championship feud has been similar to that of the tag titles.

Five weeks ago, Cesaro ticked off Sheamus by nonchalantly tossing the U.S. belt into the ring after the champion’s match on Main Event. The fact that Sheamus took such exception to this act of disrespect helped illustrate the importance of the title itself.

The following week, Cesaro unsurprisingly became the No. 1 contender, prompting a series of back-and-forth antics where either man would distract his opponent and ultimately cost him the match.

But again, the focus here wasn’t solely on the strap.

It’s become more of a personal matter of two men trying to get one up on each other. Of course, you could interpret this as Sheamus’ way of defending the honour of the belt—even though the company hasn't directly spun it this way.

Another point worth noting is that Sheamus scored the victory over Cesaro in his six-man tag match on Raw that also involved the Usos and the ‘Dusts. At first, I thought this was foolish. But at this point, a loss for Cesaro is not as damaging to both the title and the champion as a loss for Sheamus would have been.

Again, another solid yet unspectacular build that could have seen greater focus on the strap but nonetheless still promises to be a match worth watching.

Intercontinental Championship

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The feud between the Miz and Dolph Ziggler has been one of the more entertaining on WWE programming as of late.

With Damien Mizdow and R-Ziggler providing the comic relief, we’ve seen some solid matches involving two former world champions, as they’ve traded victories on Raw, SmackDown and Main Event over the past few weeks. And just like Sheamus-Cesaro, there has been plenty of post-match shenanigans between the two adversaries.

But again, has there been much made of the titles themselves?

Possibly not, as this has been more an issue of the Miz seeking to even the score and Ziggler looking to humiliate his opponent.

And furthermore, on Raw this week, we saw Ziggler score a pinfall victory over the Miz in tag team action. As previously stated, this hurts the challenger less than it would hurt the champion and the belt, but when the heel challengers for the tag team, U.S. and Intercontinental titles all taste defeat just days before the PPV, it’s not a particularly good sign for the show itself.

Much like the aforementioned bouts, this one looks likely to get by on the abilities of its combatants rather than the significance of the title involved.

Divas Championship

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Paige and AJ’s feud for the Divas title has been one of the most meaningful female feuds in recent WWE history.

The two will do battle once more at Night of Champions, but have we been convinced as fans that another rematch is worth the watch?

In some ways yes, and in some ways no.

The fact that the two women have traded the titles so often already suggests that this one could be tough to predict, especially since both women are evenly matched and worthy of holding the belt. Furthermore, they’ve both been very protective of the belt itself, which may seem like a minor point but still helps add to the championship’s importance.

One point that has arguably detracted from this feud’s value, though, is the inclusion of Nikki Bella. Sure, she’s relevant at the moment and it makes matters slightly more interesting, but given that she was simply added to the match on Stephanie McMahon’s whim doesn’t do the title any favours.

What evidence do we have that she is worthy of a title match on PPV?

Not a lot, really, and so I can’t help but feel that the WWE may have been better off leaving this one to just AJ and Paige on this occasion.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship

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Unsurprisingly, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship has been given the most exposure in the lead-up to Night of Champions.

The build started with Paul Heyman’s epic promo, hyping the credentials and achievements of his client, the new reigning, defending WWE heavyweight champion of the world.

But since then, the story has become almost entirely about redemption for John Cena. On the one hand, we’ve been shown that Cena is a worthy challenger after he absolutely decimated the Wyatt Family almost single-handedly a few weeks back.

But on the flip side, there has been little to no mention of Cena’s passion for the belt.

Instead, it’s all about gaining one up on Lesnar and settling the score from SummerSlam. There’s nothing inherently bad about this, but maybe the story could have focused more on Cena’s desire for redemption having let down the legacy of the title in his one-sided loss to Lesnar.

But again, it appears that the WWE have sacrificed championship prestige for personal vendetta. In this case, you can see the logic, as the company is intent on building Lesnar as big as possible, presumably ahead of a loss to Roman Reigns next year.

But is this the right way to go about booking a PPV with the name “Night of Champions”? All of these matches seem a little more suited to a show like Payback, or even Hell in a Cell—given the fact that enduring rivalries are often better settled inside a cell.

Of course, perhaps I’m being a little too picky. Either way, I’m still looking forward to Night of Champions and can expect to see some great matchups.

Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts on this one, and let me know what you think about the build for Night of Champions and whether it has done justice for the PPV and its theme.