WWE Night of Champions Event No Longer Necessary in Current WWE Climate

On Sunday, September 20, WWE will present its ninth annual Night of Champions pay-per-view live from Toyota Center in Houston. Although every championship will be defended, according to the theme, there is no longer a high demand for the event as there has been in years past.

When the Night of Champions concept made its debut back in 2007, it was special because it was the one night of the year that all of the company's active championships were defended. At that time, there were a plethora of titles across all three of WWE's brands: Raw, SmackDown and ECW.

As years passed, the Brand Split faded away, and most championships were either merged or retired. Currently, there are five remaining titles compared to the nine that were around eight years ago.

An argument can be made that less is more and that the fewer number of titles make each more prestigious, but it simultaneously renders Night of Champions irrelevant.

Credit: WWE.com

Usually, four of the five titles are defended on pay-per-view each month, so there is hardly anything out of the ordinary about five championship matches taking place on the same show. Therefore, Night of Champions is no different than any other event on the pay-per-view calendar.

The show should be designed to showcase the champions and challengers, but more often than not the main event matches aren't focused on the gold at all.

Take the headlining match of the 2011 installment as an example: Triple H vs. CM Punk was positioned as the biggest bout on the show, though no titles were at stake.

Furthermore, the titles that are defended rarely get the spotlight they deserve. It isn't uncommon for WWE to confirm championship matches for the last possible minute (see: 2013's Intercontinental Championship match), effectively making them meaningless and ruining the entire purpose of the PPV.

Since the 2010 event, WWE has strayed from the original theme of every contest on the card being a championship match. It started out with one non-title bout, which later led to many standard singles matches taking place without anything on the line.

Credit: WWE.com

Similar to Extreme Rules and Tables, Ladders & Chairs, the Night of Champions theme was used to boost the PPV buyrate. As it lost more and more of its mystique over time, the number of people who bought the annual event decreased significantly.

The quality of Night of Champions has never been too exceptional, either. None of the recent installments have been even above average, as they typically have featured rematches from SummerSlam or filler on the road to Hell in a Cell.

Sunday's SummerSlam saw John Cena and Seth Rollins face off in a monumental champion-versus-champion match. In what would have been a fitting main event for Night of Champions, it was rushed for the biggest party of the summer. Instead, it now appears Rollins will be pulling double duty at the show.

While Seth Rollins vs. Sting is a major get for this year's Night of the Champions, the event itself doesn't promise to be anything spectacular because of how watered-down the concept has been. Unless more championships are created, there isn't a need for a show that at one time meant much more than it does now.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.

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