WWE Night of Champions 2011 Full PPV Review

What's up, ladies and gentlemen? My name is Eric Kanes, and we are about an hour removed from tonight's Night of Champions PPV, and...I'm still trying to figure out what I just saw.

After two spectacular PPVs from WWE in the form of Money in the Bank and SummerSlam, Night of Champions failed to live up to those standards and fell completely flat. It could be the crowd that was mostly dead, it could be the overbooking, or it could be some of the ridiculous finishes, but overall, Night of Champions was not as good as it could have been.

Without any further ado, let's get right down to the match-by-match breakdown.

Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne d. The Miz & R-Truth via DQ (***)

This was a pretty good opener and the match flowed together well. The finish was a bit weird though as Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne got an illegal tag, The Miz and R-Truth got a legal tag but it was ignored, and the referee ignored The Miz as he hit the Skull Crushing Finale and was going for the win.

Of course, this led to The Miz lashing out and attacking the referee. However, he actually had a legitimate claim to his frustration which made Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne look weaker than if they just got a clean win. The Miz could've attacked the referee afterward.

Cody Rhodes d. Ted DiBiase (**1/2)

This match was slow for the most part and never really picked up. It ended with Ted DiBiase ripping Cody's mask off and Cody quickly rolling him up and grabbing his tights. This just felt like a filler match.

Dolph Ziggler d. Alex Riley, Jack Swagger, & John Morrison (**3/4)

This wasn't a very strong match for a Fatal Four Way. Just like the previous bout, it never really picked up and we saw the regular bad acting from Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero that we see on RAW. At one point, Alex Riley hit his finisher on Jack Swagger and had the match won but Vickie put Swagger's foot on the rope. Dolph started yelling, "You just cost me the match!" when she clearly saved it for him. Dolph won after Swagger hit the gutwrench powerbomb and Dolph pushed him out of the way to steal the 3-count. This match had potential to be great but it wasn't very well worked.

Mark Henry d. Randy Orton to become the NEW World Heavyweight Champion (***1/2)

This was easily the match of the night and the only match worth watching. These guys told a great story with Orton constantly trying to put Henry down but failing because Henry was just too strong. The finish saw Henry kick Orton in the knee and at that point, Orton couldn't get up. Henry stood there and watched Orton try to get up and hit the RKO but Henry just pushed him away.

Henry then let Orton get up before hitting the world's strongest slam. The finish made Henry look like a legit badass. If there's one thing WWE has gotten right in the past couple of months, it's their booking of Mark Henry. Hopefully, he has a long reign with the title. He's red hot right now and WWE should take advantage of that.

Kelly Kelly d. Beth Phoenix (*)

The only thing worth nothing here is the loud pop for Beth and the "Kelly Sucks" chants. Beth also hit a nice-looking superplex on Kelly but of course, Kelly ended up getting the win. The first time Kelly won, it was lame. Now, it's just ridiculous. The divas division is becoming more and more of a joke by the week.

John Cena d. Alberto Del Rio to become the NEW WWE Champion (**3/4)

I can't say that I'm upset with John Cena winning the WWE title because, believe it or not, I believe it's the right move. However, I am a bit surprised. What was the point of even putting the WWE title on Del Rio so fast if he was going to lose it before the Mexico tour? This is WWE Booking 101. Have a random midcarder win money in the bank, have him immediately cash it in without any build-up, and then bury him.

Would it have hurt them to actually build Del Rio up before giving him a title reign? This was just a waste of the money in the bank briefcase. John Cena winning the title back was inevitable as Alberto Del Rio is just not a credible main eventer, so I can't say I'm too upset with the outcome.

Triple H d. CM Punk (***)

The main event is where things got really confusing. In a matter of minutes, a really good brawl turned into an overbooked mess.

To give you guys a "quick" recap (takes a breath),  The Miz and R-Truth attacked CM Punk and Triple H, The Miz put CM Punk on top of Triple H, the referee counted to two, the referee attacked The Miz, The Miz attacked the referee, John Laurinaitis and a new referee came out, Triple H covered CM Punk, John Laurinaitis didn't let the ref count, CM Punk covered Triple H, R-Truth broke up the pin, The Miz and R-Truth randomly left, John Laurinaitis started texting, Kevin Nash came out and randomly attacked everyone, and then Triple H got the win.

It was one of the most unintentionally hilarious endings ever. Come on, WWE. This was like something you'd see in TNA.

So overall, Night of Champions was mostly filler . Five of the matches had potential to at least be decent but only one is worth watching. Everything else felt like filler and we've got no more answers than what we started with.

We still don't know what Kevin Nash's role is. Night of Champions was supposed to answer all of the questions that SummerSlam left us but instead, it just felt like a transitional show to Hell in a Cell.

Therefore, I have to give it a final score of 5/10.

I hope you enjoyed this column. Until next time, I'm out!

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