WWE Night of Champions 2014: Biggest Missed Opportunities with Show's Booking

While Night of Champions was a decent pay-per-view, you can't help but feel there were a few crucial missed booking opportunities on the card.

The lack of involvement from Brie Bella in the AJ Lee/Nikki Bella/Paige triple-threat bout for the Divas Championship was one thing. OK, so the Nikki vs. Brie feud isn't exactly making for amazing television, but come on, what about continuity or logical storytelling?

Why even throw Nikki into the match if it wasn't going to lead to Brie getting involved in some manner? It doesn't make much sense.

No wonder fans can't take the Nikki vs. Brie rivalry seriously—WWE clearly doesn't.

Credit: WWE.com

Scripting Cesaro to lose to Sheamus in their match for the United States Championship also felt like a significant mistake.

Sheamus' reign has been rather dull and forgettable, and booking it to continue seems rather unwise. The Irish star's career seems to be in a bit of trouble these days—he very much needs a character change or a heel turn to turn things around—and he's not doing the belt any favors whatsoever.

And Cesaro, who has been booked hideously over the last few months, desperately needed the boost a title victory would have brought him. OK, so the United States Championship isn't going to drastically turn anyone's career around, but it would have at least put the Swiss star back on the map.

Credit: WWE.com

The muddled and inconclusive ending of the John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar main event was also booked badly. I mean, this is supposed to be the main event of a pay-per-view, so why book it like a Raw main event?

It also reminded me of one of those dreadful WCW pay-per-views circa 2000 in which the show just goes off the air and no one has a clue what is going on. Yeah, that's not good.

Wrestling fans have paid their money, or subscribed to the network, and they deserve proper endings to their pay-per-view main events.

Maybe WWE should have scripted Rollins to successfully cash in his Money in the Bank shot. It would have made for a fantastic, unexpected ending—and helped Rollins' credibility as he prepares to enter the main event scene. As it was, his failed attempt to win the belt made him look rather foolish and inept.

Credit: WWE.com

Or perhaps WWE might have been better off just keeping Rollins out of it and scripting a clean win for either Lesnar or Cena, thus bringing this program to its natural conclusion. Frankly, dragging this rivalry out even longer seems like a bad idea on WWE's part. Creatively, it may have gone as far as it can.

Is anyone that bothered about seeing those two (presumably) clashing again at Hell in a Cell?

As a show, Night of Champions may have been good entertainment and a decent way to pass three hours, but it's very difficult to see how it helped the company going forward. The writers just didn’t make the most of their opportunities. Of course, that seems to be the story with most of WWE's pay-per-views these days.