WWE Night of Champions 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Meh

WWE Night of Champions was live from Buffalo, New York. If you need a recap, hit up Big Nasty's article here. 

Anyway, on to my thoughts about the night in general...

The Good

+ Rhodes/DiBiase.  Nice match with some good storytelling of former tag team partners who knew each other well with countering each other's signature maneuvers, and actually appropriate wrap up to it.  Solid PPV match, in my opinion.   Wonder how Cody will evolve from here? 

+ Sheamus/Christian segment.  Did what it needed to in order to further the feud.  Nice twist with Sheamus leading the "One more match" chant, then to have Christian eat the Brogue kick.

+ Fatal Four Way.  Fun match with nice storytelling and some suspenseful spots along with adequate storytelling.  Ziggy looked strong, as did Swagger.  Has to be a tweener turn coming soon for him.   Not much else to say other then it could have used a few more minutes.

+ Re-emphasizing the Main Event's stipulation.  I liked how they kept mentioning how Trips had to retire as COO if he lost the match.  Nice build up throughout the broadcast.

+ Henry/Orton.  Classic match playing up Henry's massive strength advantage for the first half, then switched to Orton picking up steam, which was needed to demonstrate why he's champion.  Little slow, but that was expected.  Right call with Henry winning cleanly given how they've booked him.  Great promo afterwards by Mark 

+ Kelly/Phoenix.  Nice match with more time then usual for the Divas.  Nice storytelling as well. Not a fan of the finish.  Not one bit.  It got a "good" though because I can't deny it was a solid match.

+ Cena/Del Rio.  Another classic type of match with Del Rio working over Cena's arm and shoulder and Cena making various come backs.  The opening banter was good, and Cena may have had the segment of the night with stealing Del Rio's car.   Match was what it should have been, with both men hitting their various signature moves and giving enough offense to make Alberto credible in the ring as much as needed, but Cena won in "Super" fashion. 

+ Trips/Punk.  Have to love crowd spots.  I do like No Disqualification matches because they do provide some fun spots, and was needed to make Trips look respectable without Punk outpacing him.  Pacing was a little slow, but couldn't be helped.  Liked the Awesome Truth run in, which was appropriate for their build up tonight.  Not sure I like the Nash run in, but it served it's purpose.  Punk lost no momentum with the loss.   Match of the night.

The Meh

~ Air Boom/Awesome Truth.  Didn't really do very much for me, but it does advance the angle while protecting Miz and Truth (heels need it?).  Nice continuance of the "conspiracy" against Awesome Truth,but a standard tag match with an advancement that might have been better on Raw.   Didn't feel like a good opener. 

~ WWE Title finish.  To be fair, there was no "good" way out.  Del Rio had no credibility of character and was never really booked as a threat to Cena.  I'm just glad it's over with.  Del Rio won't be sniffing a major title for a while.

The Bad

- Movie ad.  Why do I care about another Triple H movie that, more or less, went straight to DVD? 

- Kelly/Beth ending.  Wasted opportunity to build on the crowd heat and create more intrigue into the Diva's division.  I did have some fears that it would suck the wind from the crowd.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Anyone else for renaming the Brogue Kick to Donkey Punch?

I have expected Mr. Ryder to run interference for Morrison during the US Title match.

"Beat 'em up! Make a snack!"

Orton is deceptively strong.  I'm a little surprised he hit the rope hung DDT on Henry.

Congratulations to Henry!  Well deserved!  Yeah, I marked a little.

Phoenix got a great pop tonight.

"Kelly sucks!

The WWE's video editing depart continues to score home runs. 

Incredibly funny spot with Cena stealing Del Rio's ride.  I lost it. 

"Let's go Cena!  Cena sucks!"

They managed to continue their recent trends of hot endings to their Pay Per Views.

Overall Grade: B+

Actually a fairly strong pay-per-view overall. I still think they botched the booking of the Diva Title match by having Kelly Kelly retain, but with Henry winning, they made up for it.