WWE Night of Champions 2011: How It Never Really Replaced Vengeance as a PPV

In 2007, the WWE showed a pay-per-view called Vengeance: Night of Champions. It segued into Night of Champions replacing the Vengeance PPV.

Now four years later, Vengeance is back although it is slated for October. It's obvious now that something went wrong when the WWE tried to change their September PPV. The reason is simple.

The PPV lacks a punch that it's predecessor carried. A PPV like Night of Champions works only in certain circumstances. It worked in 2008 when superstars like John Cena and Triple H headlined the show, and it worked again in 2009 when it was headlined by Jeff Hardy and CM Punk.

The first pay-per-view worked because it had some of the biggest names in wrestling in the main event. The second worked because it had something that was genuinely interesting.

Animosity.

The clash between Hardy and Punk was intriguing, and you could feel real tension between the two.

It just happened to be for the title.

This is what is wrong with Night of Champions. It's about the titles when stories are what sell pay-per-views.

This works on several levels. On one, it is simple word association. When you think Night of Champions you think wrestling and championships. Fine, but not great.

Vengeance brings something else to mind.

It subtly hints at something darker. Something that lives in all of us. The rage of seeing another person get a promotion. The idea that an idiot gets an attractive date. The fact that something was taken from us that should have been ours.

It is something that we all feel and that we all share. Night of Champions? I see them in action every week on TV. What is that supposed to mean?

The biggest match on this card isn't Orton/Henry for the heavyweight title. It isn't Cena/Del Rio for the WWE title. It certainly isn't the Diva title match.

It's Triple H versus CM Punk. And it's because it's personal. It's about a guy running his mouth who needs to be shut up. It's about a well-muscled guy who is a bully and needs to be told off. It's about two guys not liking each other.

And it's not like vengeance just works for them. It could be woven into any part of this card.

Cena could hate Del Rio because he stole his chance to have a third match with Punk for the championship. Now Cena not only has to win the belt again, but he has to hope that Punk wins his match because he needs to prove he is the best.

Del Rio stole his chance to prove that. He stole Cena's chance to prove that on the biggest stage, he was better than CM Punk. Now he might never get that chance and he wants Del Rio to pay.

Orton-Henry? Randy Orton is the youngest man to ever be a champion in the WWE. Henry has been in the company a decade an a half and has never once held a belt.

He could look at Orton and see a "skinny white boy with bad tattoos" who got chances just because he is "pretty", and has a last name people know. He would not just want to beat Orton. He would have to crush him to prove that he was just a dynasty, just another kid who got shots that Henry deserved.

The Miz and R-Truth against Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne is even easier. The Miz and Truth could be embarrassed that they have been downgraded from fighting for the title, to competing for the tag-team titles.

They can't change that, but they can take it out on their opponents. After all, if they can't take their frustrations out on management, then they might as well do it with the people in front of them.

As for the diva match with Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix? That one is easier still. Phoenix could merely look at Kelly and feel rage that this blond barbie lookalike gets to be champion because men fantasize about her.

Not because she is the strongest. Not because she is the most technical.

It's because she can sell posters and a bunch of issues of Playboy if she should ever decide to pose for them. Where as Phoenix has made herself the strongest wrestler she could in the gym, Kelly made herself the sexiest.

The fact that they could be put side by side with Phoenix in a ring and have anyone question the outcome of the match should enrage her and make her want to break Kelly Kelly.

In each match it could easily become a story about how someone feels slighted. Instead, it gets lowered to the status of being about belts. Considering we see title matches every week for free, it means little.

It's why this pay-per-view has never been successful.

It's why it's predecessor is returning this October.

And its returning with a vengeance.