ARN - Night of Champions 2010 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Night of Champions 2010

This PPV is coming off SummerSlam 2010 where Team WWE led by John Cena defeated Team Nexus led by Wade Barrett in a 7 on 7 elimination match, Kane defended his World Title over Rey Mysterio, Shemaus retained the WWE Title via DQ over Randy Orton and Big Show defeated CM Punk, Joseph Mercury & Luke Gallows in a handicap match.

News and happenings before we get to the PPV...

Raw the night after NOC has the show open with Nexus and Cena in a promo duel-off. Do you feel with the Nexus loss to WWE at SummerSlam that they were going to fizzle out as hard as they did?

Daniel Bryan had his first singles match for his return...and lost to Michael Traver in under 3 minutes. Why do you think it took so long for WWE to come around on Bryan?

Michael Cole spent most of his match burying him and his Vegan ways. Did Vince really have a hard-on for Bryan at this time?

Alex Riley is highlighted with a promo with the Miz about Bryan. What did you think about Riley and why he didn’t make it?

Del Rio is beginning his push here and has the intro of Ricardo Rodriguez starting here. What was your impression of Del Rio in the beginning and did you see a star?

Skandor Akbar passed away on 8/19. Did you have any memories or stories about Akbar?

Tyler Black signs with WWE and reports to FCW. We’ll know him later of course as Seth Rollins. Did you frequent FCW at the time to check in on talent and who stood out to you if you did?

Serena Deeb who was 24 at the time is all of a sudden released in the middle of being a big part of the Straight Edge Society gimmick. What do you remember about this at the time as it’s been speculated she was drinking too much?

Lance Cade’s death is in the news a lot because it’s brought up in Linda’s campaign to be a senator in Connecticut. What are your memories of Lance?

A lot of time is spent building up to the 900th episode of Raw. How big an achievement is this for the company?

Dave Meltzer reported at the time that MVP was in the doghouse. Do you remember what happened and why he was in the doghouse?

Luna Vachon is found dead on 8/27. What are your thoughts and memories on Luna?

The original incarnation of NXT is renewed for a 3rd season and is announced as an all women’s cast. What did you think of this NXT?

It’s announced that Chris Jericho will be in the main event at NOC and if he doesn’t win the WWE Title he would leave WWE. These stipulations used to mean something...now they don’t. Do you think not upholding stips is one of the big reasons so many people have stopped watching over time?

Is this a down point for WWE creative? There’s literally nothing to go over in the TV on the run-up except that they’re talking about merging titles (two separate Tag Team Titles, two separate Women’s Titles, etc.) Did you feel it was silly to have all these titles and devalued them?

Wrestling Observer 9/13/10

HHH’s role in the company was officially formalized in an Executive position, and he’s working in the office. His official title is Senior Adviser, which basically means he’s working directly under Vince McMahon. He’s been given a new office. One person noted it’s really the role he’s been doing as Vince’s main adviser on the wrestling end of the business for nearly the past decade, but this formalizes it and also gives him the corporate title so kinds of places him officially in one of the heir apparent roles that people largely figured he was getting.

What did you think of the official move and how long had he been doing it anyway? What do you think of HHH in this role?

Wrestling Observer 9/20/10

Matt Hardy’s future in WWE is in question regarding a behavioral issue that is being kept quiet that took place in Europe.

Were you there or do you remember this and what do you remember about it?
Were you worried about Matt?

Mike Shaw passed away on 9/10. Memories and thoughts on Shaw?

Miz does a figure-four live on Raw in a match against Daniel Bryan but does it wrong. Did you talk with him about this?

Here we are...Night of Champions 2015

WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS PPV POLL RESULTS

• Thumbs up 23 (24.0%)
• Thumbs down 19 (19.8%)
• In the middle 54 (56.3%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz 63

Six-pack for WWE title 28

WORST MATCH POLL

Michelle McCool vs. Melina 45

Undertaker vs. Kane 19

Tag Team gauntlet 18

Big Show vs. C.M. Punk 11

Night of Champions drew a legitimate sellout announced at 13,851 to the All-State Arena in Chicago, with paid in the 11,000 range.

1. Dolph Ziggler pinned Kofi Kingston in a match where the title could change hands via DQ or COR in 12:42. Ziggler was accompanied by Vickie Guerrero (who legit has started a training/dieting program designed to lose weight) and Kaitlyn in what appears to be a triangle tease. Guerrero went to slap Kingston, but Ziggler yelled at her because if the ref saw and DQ’d him, he’d lose the title. She stopped. While distracted, Kingston went for Trouble in Paradise, but missed again, and Ziggler won clean with the zig zag. This was overall a solid opener. **½

These two when given time can do a lot. What say you about this match?

2. Big Show pinned C.M. Punk in 4:43. Punk came out to probably as big a face reaction as anyone on the show since they were in Chicago. Jerry Lawler didn’t understand why, which made him seem out of touch since Punk always gets this reaction in Chicago. Matt Striker’s inside remark is about how Punk’s childhood friends Scott (Colt Cabana) and Chris (Ace Steel) were at the show. To turn the crowd, Punk first did a promo about how much he loved Chicago, and then said he hated the inhabitants of the city for ruining it. Finish saw Punk come off the top right into a spear by Show, who then finished him with a knockout punch. It appears with the weakness in babyface depth, particularly on Smackdown, that they are trying to get Show into a position where he’s seen as a top of the card guy. *

Big Show and CM Punk did some entertaining stuff in 2010 but this is the end of the program. It felt like it died on the vine and it was time to move on. Wouldn’t you agree?

3. Daniel Bryan beat The Miz in 12:27 to win the U.S. title. Alex Riley came out with Miz. After a shoulder breaker, Striker said, “Shades of Double A, Happy birthday, you belong in the Hall of Fame.” I don’t recall Anderson specializing in the shoulder breaker, although he may have used it, but it was his 52nd birthday. Bryan suddenly got the LeBell lock and Miz tapped. Not like a Danielson main event you’d see at an indie show, but even with WWE style, it was probably the best match on the show. ***½

First off...Happy Birthday! Did they do anything for your birthday that was special besides Striker announcing this...and how often did you use a shoulder breaker?

Did you know these two would go on to be bigger stars than either probably could’ve imagined.

4. Michelle McCool pinned Melina to unify the Divas and women’s title in to one belt in 6:29 in a lumberjills match. I’m not sure who was in charge of laying this match out, but the agents in the company all have decades of experience and this was laid out by someone who must have forgotten everything he learned. Suffice to say that all of the lumberjills, even the heels, were favoring the babyfaces. Basically it was McCool against everyone. McCool, the heel, won in the end. All the women were attacking McCool on the floor, when Layla ran in, but Melina threw her out. McCool escaped from her beating and laid out Melina with a high kick and the pin. 1/4*

What do you think of the criticism here from Meltzer regarding this and the booking of this match?

5. Kane pinned Undertaker in 18:27 to retain the World title. Long match with the crowd dead most of the way, as Kane was on the offense. Taker went for the tombstone, but Kane reversed it, then spiked Undertaker with the tombstone and got the clean win. Undertaker acted hurt, got a little applause leaving (it was there, but far from overwhelming and again, it didn’t appear people picked up on the story), walked way too slowly to the back, fell down once (a nice touch), and acted like he was in great pain going out. *¾

This was long and not really what you would expect from these two. What say you?

6. Drew McIntyre & Cody Rhodes won a gauntlet series to become the new WWE tag team champions. This match wasn’t announced ahead of time. Even as of the weekend, creative didn’t know which way they were going with the tag team title other than it would be at stake on the show. The feeling is McIntyre has the look and size to be a star, and Rhodes has some charisma with his Dashing cocky gimmick, plus it gets them on both shows. The deal here is the way it was put together was for them to win the titles, but never beat The Hart Dynasty. But again, the psychology was all ass backwards, because the Hart Dynasty was supposed to come off as top contenders, but instead they lost in 2:00 clean. They should have won two or three matches and then lost, with the story the situation was unfair to them. Instead, they just came off like losers, and as faces put in a position of challenging for the title, that’s exactly what you don’t want to come across as. Because everyone thought the belts Bret Hart brought out were so ugly, they’ve got new tag belts.

Usos beat Hart Dynasty in 2:13. Usos beat Santino & Kozlov in :44. Mark Henry & Evan Bourne beat Hart Dynasty in 1:20. McIntyre & Rhodes beat Henry & Bourne in 6:06. People were surprisingly into this match, particularly Bourne’s selling. Henry hot tagged in, leading to a hilarious spot. Rhodes ran at Henry and was supposed to get hit and fall down. Well, he ran too fast as Henry hadn’t even started his punch when Rhodes got there. So Rhodes gets there, and just falls down, selling a punch that hasn’t even been thrown. So ridiculous looking. The finish saw Bourne on Henry’s shoulders to do a shooting star off the shoulders onto Rhodes. McIntyre ran in and kicked Henry in the gut several times and Bourne fell off. Rhodes pinned Bourne after the crossroads. The final match was good. **1/4

The psychology of this does seem wacky but it’s pretty fun to look back ten years at this show and these two are two of the biggest stars with two different companies right now. 

7. Randy Orton won the elimination match over John Cena, Chris Jericho, Edge, Wade Barrett and champion Sheamus to take the WWE title in 21:27. Orton was the only one of the six cheered. In order of how loudly they were booed, from booed the most to least, it was Cena, Jericho, Barrett, Sheamus and then Edge, who got almost no reaction. Orton immediately pinned Jericho in 1:28 with the RKO. The match basically stopped as Jericho did a slow walk out. They teased and played it up like it was a lot more than a guy getting pinned and going to the back. There was a “Y2J” chant as he left. Edge speared Sheamus and Orton, but Cena delivered the AA to Edge and pinned him in 14:59. The rest of Nexus hit the ring, distracting Cena and Barrett pinned Cena after wasteland in 18:31. Orton hit the RKO on Heath Slater and then hit another one on Barrett for the pin in 20:31. Sheamus immediately hit the brogue kick on Orton, who kicked out. Sheamus tried the Iron Cross, which was formerly the Razor’s edge, but Orton escaped and hit the RKO and pinned Sheamus to win the title. Good main event. ***½

What did you think of all the Nexus interference? Was Barrett pinning Cena here one month too late? Randy Orton being on top again...thoughts?