WWE Night of Champions 2011 Results: Mark Henry's Title Win Helps Randy Orton

When Mark Henry won the world heavyweight championship from Randy Orton at Night of Champions, the fans in attendance did not make a sound. Normally that would be a bad sign, but in this case it was a good kind of silence.

Fans have become accustomed to seeing Orton put over against everyone during his tenure in WWE, and Henry has never been given a real shot at being the champion during his 15 years in WWE, so when Henry hit the World’s Strongest Slam and actually pinned Orton no one believed what they saw.

But if you look back to the story that WWE told before Night of Champions, and where the story went on Raw last night, it was obvious that Henry was going to win the title.

And that is not a bad thing.

There are good surprises in wrestling and there are bad surprises in wrestling. For the last six years, WWE has relied on bad surprises because they don’t want people knowing the way their matches are going to end.

This narrow minded approach to booking is one of the reasons that WWE business is in the tank right now. But every now and then, Vince McMahon does something right and you have to tip your cap to him.

No one gave Henry a chance of winning this match. He is a body builder with no real ability in the ring, but the character he has been playing for the last two months—the monster heel who runs over everyone in his path—has been the best part of SmackDown.

And WWE has to know that there is a serious problem on the SmackDown roster as far as main event workers are concerned. Henry is the only heel on that show worth anything right now, which should tell you all you need to know about SmackDown.

But for Orton, who is still the biggest star on the show, to stay relevant, he must be chasing the championship against a heel that the fans take seriously and want to see lose. WWE could have done it with Christian, but since he is small that wasn’t going to happen.

Henry was always going to be the one that would beat Orton. Whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not, it was the right call to give him the championship.

Even if Henry only holds it for one month, he deserved this title reign. And he will make the most out of his time as champion because these chances don’t come around very often, unless you are John Cena.