WWE Night of Champions 2015 Results: Full Grades for Each Superstar at PPV
An eventful and hugely exciting evening at Night of Champions has left fans excited for what is to follow over the coming months.
Several titles changing hands gives the company a fresh dynamic to work with moving forward, and although there were a few disappointing moments, most of the matches managed to entertain the crowd for the most part.
Grading the bouts and the stars competing in them is always a tough ask, largely due to the fact it's completely and utterly open to opinion.
But with Night of Champions still fresh in the memory, here's the full grades for each star in what was a pretty impressive night on pay-per-view.
Kevin Owens vs. Ryback
1 of 7
The opening bout of the night set the scene nicely for what was to follow: nice in-ring work and a result that plenty were left satisfied with.
Kevin Owens and Ryback managed to, despite having little in the way of serious build for this match, do a great job of opening the show at Night of Champions.
Owens was in top form as usual, exploiting Ryback's weakness in his arm injury really well.
Since his major explosion onto the scene in WWE, Owens' momentum had stalled a fraction of late. So the manner of his win, raking the eyes to effectively cheat and become the new Intercontinental champion, gets him some really good heat moving forward.
With a dynamic and history between them now, this feud can only get better. Ryback was far from superb, but he was aided by a nice performance from Owens.
Ryback: C+
Owens: B-
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev
2 of 7
Another surprise at Night of Champions came in the way of Dolph Ziggler's bout with Rusev.
This has been one of the most underwhelming and disappointing rivalries of 2015, with not enough clarity in the booking and a distinct lack of serious in-ring action.
But without Lana at ringside, it almost enabled Dolph and Rusev to have what they've desperately needed, a real physical, brutal battle.
Dolph was selling as brilliantly as he always does, and Rusev played the heel pretty well until another disappointing ending.
What let it down was the controversial and uninspiring ending, having Summer Rae inadvertently distract Rusev and cost him the win.
All that does is set things up for yet another rematch.
Ziggler: C+
Rusev: C+
The Dudley Boyz vs. the New Day
3 of 7
Pinning the WWE Tag Team Championships on The Dudley Boyz so soon would, in all honesty, have been a travesty for The New Day.
They've really become the most interesting and dynamic group on the roster with their gimmick, and they deserve a lengthy run as tag champions.
But this match with The Dudley Boyz just didn't seem to live up to the hype that had been placed upon it.
The Dudleys were on a real roll and had picked up some good momentum to get to this point, but their performance did feel a little flat.
Another controversial ending, which led to The New Day being disqualified, does at least keep the rivalry going.
The Dudley Boyz: C
The New Day: B-
Charlotte vs. Nikki Bella
4 of 7
Credit to both Charlotte and Nikki Bella here for at least making something interesting happen for the Divas division after a flat few weeks.
The Divas Revolution hasn't really kicked into top gear yet, but this match could be a good foundation for the division moving forward.
Charlotte did a great job of playing on the leg injury throughout the match, whilst Nikki Bella looked pretty solid in exploiting the injury on a number of occasions.
There were some real highlights, and it showed what can happen when there's minimal interference from outside. The moment where Brie, Alicia Fox, Paige and Becky Lynch started scuffling outside was interesting, but those moments happen too often in this storyline.
So putting the focus on the actual match itself for a change was nice to see, and the result will have certainly left plenty of fans happy. But all in all, this was a nice match.
Charlotte: B-
Nikki Bella: B-
The Wyatt Family vs. Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns
5 of 7
Bringing back Chris Jericho for this bout was a shrewd move by WWE, and it helped to elevate The Wyatt Family to new heights.
As has been referred to in the past, Bray and his compatriots are at their best when they look so tough to beat. Be it because of a numbers game or the influence of one member of the family, like Braun Strowman here, this was vintage Wyatt Family.
The match itself was as exciting and high-octane as you would have expected it to be. All six men were hitting big moves and really entertaining the crowd, with Jericho settling back into WWE TV nicely with a solid performance.
The fact Jericho was the one who took the loss at the hands of Strowman also shows how serious WWE is about this guy. He certainly has aspects of his in-ring ability to work on, but he looks like someone who could be useful for The Wyatt Family.
Jericho's petulance after the match in walking away from Reigns and Ambrose sets up an interesting dynamic for Monday's Raw, too.
The Wyatt Family: Wyatt B-, Harper C, Strowman C+
Roman Reigns: C+, Dean Ambrose B-, Chris Jericho C
Seth Rollins vs. John Cena
6 of 7
It's encouragingly refreshing to write once again that John Cena was involved in the match of the night at Night of Champions.
So often Cena garners a reputation as a guy who can't produce five-star bouts, but the last 18 months or so have changed all that.
This bout with Seth Rollins was once again a true classic and enforced how interesting, exciting and watchable these two are when they compete with each other.
There were all sorts of segments and spots that brought the crowd to their feet, including Rollins' double-foot stomp on Cena when he was in the ropes.
Reversals aplenty and near misses for both men added to the tension and excitement, and even though he did lose clean, Rollins certainly didn't look weak.
Hopefully the return of Cena's open challenges will follow after this result. That would truly be best for business.
Rollins: A
Cena: A-
Seth Rollins vs. Sting
7 of 7
Those who can remember back to Sting's in-ring debut with WWE at WrestleMania will note that it was far from vintage Sting.
The bout with Triple H was slow, stunted and only benefitted from a whole host of outside interferences from stars of the past.
So when the spotlight was on Sting, and Sting alone, against one of WWE's most talented workers, the pressure was really on.
But The Icon delivered with a standout performance, and he really did look far younger than his actual age throughout the match.
He took the bump of going through the table really well, and the moment he jumped from the top rope to take Rollins down on the outside rightly brought the crowd to their feet.
A disappointing ending let the match down, but what happened before shouldn't be forgotten. Rollins, after just coming out of a bruising encounter with John Cena, pulled off another solid effort as well.
Rollins: B+
Sting: B+
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