Night of Champions 2013 Review

Night of Champions 2013 Review : Bryan Beats the Odds Again


This event was quite anticipated, mostly for the well built main event of Orton vs Bryan, but how did the whole show pan out?



Weirdly enough the night starts with HHH coming out to say he approves of the PPV. Paul Heyman also comes out to complain about being in the handicap match tonight, but HHH says he's still in it, which brings me to my first problem. HHH did nothing to look like a heel tonight. After all those episodes of Raw in which he looks like the biggest bastard in the world, he's suddenly doing everything the crowd wants him to, like giving Axel an extra match, or saying there'll be no interference in the main event. It's like if at Over the Edge 1998, Vince McMahon decided to call the Austin/Love match right down the middle. It just makes no sense. This talking should have been taken care of on Raw. Well at least that sets up our first match.




Kofi Kingston vs Curtis Axel
One thing I like about this match is that it gives Axel an excuse when he's pinned by CM Punk later on. The match was much better than I was expecting, as they had a nice back and forth match that had the crowd's interest throughout, and started the night off well. Axel even got a nice clean win and retained his IC Title. ***


AJ Lee vs Naomi vs Brie Bella vs Natalya
I was terrified that WWE would decide to put the title on Brie or Naomi to promote the awful-looking Total Divas show, but thankfully they saw the light. The match wasn't as bad as I thought it might be either, except for a botched flying crossbody by Naomi. Natalya showed her awesome skill as she put on a double sharpshooter. AJ got the win with her black widow submission move. *1/2



Rob Van Dam vs Alberto Del Rio
I thought this seemed pretty low on the card, but I should've known that signalled a bad finish. Yes a DQ finish in a World Title match on a PPV. Are you kidding? Who the hell thought that this would be a good idea? The match was a carbon copy of one that you would see in a Smackdown main event. Seeing the Van Terminator again was pretty cool, but it also made the fact that Damien Sandow didn't cash in even sillier. The champ was knocked out! What more do you need? Disappointing match, even if the actual action portion of the match was pretty good. **3/4



Fandango vs The Miz 
There were already time constraints on this show and they decide to throw this pointless match on? To watch PPVs here in Scotland, I have to stay up from 1am to 4am and this match almost put me back to sleep. It doesn't help that it's shitty babyface Miz in the match using his shitty variation of a figure four. *



CM Punk vs Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman
And now we're back to some good stuff. The Punk/Axel portions of the match were good, and even Axel got to look good by wearing down Punk. I thought Punk's suicide dive on Heyman was pretty cool. When it was just Punk and Heyman left, it was fun to see Punk finally getting his revenge and looking like he genuinely enjoyed beating up Paul. And then we got the most random interference for the finish as Ryback came in and took out Punk to give Heyman the win. ***


So is Ryback now a Heyman guy, or is he just continuing his bully persona on anyone he can? I guess we'll find out on Raw but, for some reason, I'm not really looking forward to it. Can't they just bring back Lesnar and make it briliant again?



Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler
I'm still confused as to how Ziggler was first in line for a US Title match. He'd lost a couple of matches to Ryback, was beaten by the Shield, and basically jobbed to Bray Wyatt on Raw. How does that give him a shot? Anyway the match itself was fun while it lasted but felt rushed due to there only being an hour left on the show. Feeling rushed seems to be a theme for this show. Ambrose gets a surprisingly clean win to retain his title. **1/2



Prime Time Players vs The Shield
I thought for sure that the PTP would win the titles here, due to the fact that all the other heels had retained their titles by this point. This was another matched that felt very rushed. It was fun while it lasted though and made the PTP look pretty good in their defeat. Titus takes a spear from Reigns to end the match. **



Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan
This match had to save the show. I don't know if it did that but it was a great match anyway. I do feel like they should have given it much more time, but again there was another rushed feeling. That didn't stop the action from being fast and furious though, making this easily the match of the night. The ending did seem to come out of nowhere though with a very fast count to give Bryan his second WWE Championship. I have a feeling it'll be stripped from him very soon. ***3/4


4.5/10. I was wondering what would end up being my worst PPV of the year with WWE seemingly on a role, but this show stopped it dead. A very disappointing show, especially after coming off of a spectacular Summerslam. The whole night felt rushed and there were some questionable finishes to the main matches of the show. The main event is worth a watch and the Curtis Axel matches are entertaining but that's about it. I would avoid this one.