WWE Night of Champions (September 2011)

Original Airdate: September 18, 2011

From Buffalo, New York; Your Hosts are Michael Cole, Booker T, and Jerry Lawler

Opening WWE Tag Team Title Match: Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne v Miz and R-Truth: Kingston and Miz start, and Miz gets arrogant early, so Kofi decks him for a two count. Tag to Evan for a flying double stomp for two, and back to Kingston for a combo for two. Miz escapes long enough to tag, but Truth walks into a hiptoss, and Bourne tags in to hit him with a headscissors. That draws Miz in to save, but he takes a dropkick, and the champions clean house to set up stereo flying bodypresses on the floor! Inside, that gets Evan a one count on Truth, but he runs into a cheap shot from Miz, and the champs take control of the contest. They work Bourne over, until he fights them off, and Kingston gets the hot tag. He runs wild on Miz, and the Boom Drop connects. SOS gets him two, but Miz blocks the follow up, and Truth takes a cheap shot. That allows Miz a jawbreaker for two, so Evan fakes a tag behind the referee’s back to get back in the game. Rollup on Miz gets him two, but a flying shooting star press misses, and Miz drops a DDT for two. Miz with a Russian facebuster, but the referee is distracted, and it only gets one by the time he gets around to counting. Miz loses his cool over the officiating, however, and shoves the referee down for a DQ at 9:50. This was a solid tag opener marred by a terrible finish. **

WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Cody Rhodes v Ted DiBiase: The announcers list off all the stars who held the title in the past, and I’m honestly surprised that neither of their fathers ever did. DiBiase dominates early on, and a dropkick gets the challenger two. Cody fights back and uses a pair of short-knees, and a release gourdbuster finds the mark. Cody works a mat-based abdominal stretch, but Ted fights to a vertical base, so Rhodes pounds him into the corner. DiBiase ties a monkeyflip, but Rhodes fights off the pin attempt, and puts the boots to him. DiBiase fights him off again, and makes a comeback, but a dropkick misses. That allows Cody to stomp him again, and he works an abdominal stretch from there. DiBiase escapes, so Rhodes throws a dropkick for two, and he works a hammerlock crossface hold. DiBiase escapes, and makes another comeback. Bicycle kick gets the challenger two, and a sitout spinebuster gets another two. DiBiase tries the cobra clutch, but Rhodes blocks, so Ted dropkicks him for two instead. Cody tries going upstairs, but DiBiase slams him off, and he removes Cody’s protective face guard. DiBiase looks to clobber the champion with it, but Cody counters with a schoolboy at 9:422 A pretty boring one here, coupled with another unsatisfying finish. ½*

WWE United States Title Fatal Four-Way Match: Dolph Ziggler v John Morrison v Jack Swagger v Alex Riley: First fall wins it here. Everyone slugs it out to start, with Ziggler and Morrison getting dumped out. Jack hammers on Alex from there, but Riley manages a uranage for two. He tries a plancha on Ziggler, but misses, and John sneaks in with a cradle on Swagger for two. John with a boot for two, but Ziggler is back, so Morrison dropkicks him out of the ring. Alex comes in with a fireman's cutter on Swagger for two, and Ziggler hits John with a rocker dropper for two. Ziggler gets Morrison in a sleeper, as Jack holds Alex in an anklelock, but both fail to coax submissions. Riley drops Jack with a DDT for two, so Jack puts him in another anklelock, but John saves. Jack responds by powerbombing Morrison, but then Ziggler steals the pin at 8:18. This was watchable, but not much of a story, just a bunch of stuff. *

World Heavyweight Title Match: Randy Orton v Mark Henry: Henry powers him into the corner to start, so Orton starts throwing punches to buy time, and he manages to put Mark down. Randy quickly makes it count by targeting the ankle, but Henry just gets pissed off, and goes after him. Orton dodges a charge that sends Henry to the outside, but Mark blocks an RKO on the way back in, and turns the tide. Randy tries a sleeper to wear the challenger down, but Henry drops into the corner to shake him off, and Orton ends up taking a bump to the outside. Henry works him over on the way back in, with Orton doing a good job of selling for him. Mark with a bodyslam to set up a splash for two, and a slam gets another two, but Orton fights him off. RKO, but Henry bails to the apron to avoid it. Randy responds with a rope-hung DDT for two, but Henry counters the RKO into a slam to win the title at 13:06. ¾*

WWE Divas Title Match: Kelly Kelly v Beth Phoenix: Beth gets a nice hometown reaction here, so expect her to job. Phoenix knocks her around early, but misses an elbowdrop. Kelly keeps using speed to avoid her, and a rana into a cradle gets the champion two. She works a headscissors on the ropes to wear Phoenix down for a flying bodypress, but Beth catches her in a stomachbreaker. Beth with a catapult under the bottom rope for two, but Kelly counters a tilt-a-whirl with a bulldog. Natalya pulls Beth out of the ring to prevent a pin attempt, so Eve Torres tackles Natalya down. Phoenix saves, but walks into an inside cradle from Kelly for two. Kelly with another cradle for two, but Phoenix counters a rocker dropper with a clothesline. Phoenix adds a vertical superplex for two (with poor Kelly landing right on her ankles instead of her back), but Kelly counters a powerbomb with a sunset flip at 6:24. ½*

WWE Title Match: Alberto Del Rio v John Cena: Cena does his own ring introduction, in a funny bit. Feeling out process to start, and Cena delivers a bulldog, so Ricardo trips him up. The referee boots him, but the momentum has been successfully broken, and Del Rio dumps the challenger to the outside. Inside, Del Rio works a double knucklelock, but Cena fights him off, and delivers a suplex for two. Del Rio fights back with a single-arm DDT for two, and he puts the boots to John for two. Cena fires back with a belly-to-belly suplex, and he snaps Del Rio’s throat across the top rope, but Alberto counters a charge with a clothesline for two. A charge of his own ends in Del Rio taking a spill to the outside, and Cena suplexes him back into the ring. Cena with the Five Knuckle Shuffle into the AA, but Del Rio counters with a lungblower for two. Charge misses, allowing Cena a dropkick for two, but a reversal sequence ends in Del Rio delivering a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. John goes up with a flying rocker dropper for two, but Del Rio counters an AA with a bridging German suplex for two. Flying senton splash gets him another two, so he goes to a triangle choke, but Cena powers to a vertical base, and slams him to break free. STF, and Del Rio fights, but ultimately taps at 17:29. I wasn’t feeling this one, and it seemed much longer than it actually was, but they were working hard here. * ¼ 

Main Event: No Disqualification Match: Triple H v CM Punk: If HHH loses, he resigns as COO of WWE. Punk attacks before the bell, dumping HHH to the outside, and sending him into the barricade right away. He preps an announce table, but that allows HHH to recover, and he pounds Punk down on the floor, then whips him into the rail himself. They fight onto an announce table, but Punk escapes him, and takes the high ground in the ring. HHH follows in for a slugfest, and Hunter manages a cross corner whip to set up a Pedigree, but Punk blocks. Punk unloads in the corner, but a corner kneesmash misses, and Punk takes a bump to the outside. HHH stays on the knee by bashing it into the post, but Punk sends him into the rail to buy a little time, and manages the kneesmash. Whip into the rail, but HHH reverses, and Punk takes a bump into the crowd. HHH dives after him with a flying axehandle off the barricade, and Hunter delivers mounted punches on the floor. They brawl through the crowd and over to the entrance area, and HHH sends him into the set with a catapult. Pedigree, but Punk backdrops him on the floor, and beats on him with various set pieces. Punk with a chair shot for two on the way back in, but HHH fights back with a spinebuster for two. Punk bails, so HHH chases, clipping the leg, and then bashing it into the post for good measure. Figure four on the floor, but Punk shoves him into the steps to block. Punk puts him through an announce table, and both guys crawl inside, when Miz and R-Truth run in to attack both of them. Well, okay then. After beating both guys up, they put Punk on top, but HHH gets a shoulder up at two. I know he says Flair is his hero, but let’s be real, it’s Hogan. Miz responds by beating up the official as the match grinds to a complete halt, and HHH and Punk recover enough to clear them out. HHH hits a Pedigree from there, but there’s no referee. Another runs out, but he gets distracted by the downed original referee, and doesn’t count. That allows Punk to recover with a GTS, and suddenly the referee is ready to count, but Truth breaks the count at two. Punk gives Truth a GTS for his trouble, and he tries diving back in on Hunter, but gets caught in a Pedigree for two. That brings Kevin Nash out to attack both guys again, until HHH knocks him cold with a sledgehammer. He staggers back in to catch a recovering Punk with the Pedigree, and we’re done at 24:09. The actual layout of the match was pretty cliche, but they elevated it by having actual passion and hatred behind the usual brawl spots, before it completely fell apart when all the overbooking kicked in. The crowd was also surprisingly disinterested most of the time. **

BUExperience: Night of Champions? More like Night of Poops. 

 

And yep, that line is all the effort this show deserves.

DUD