WWE Night of Champions 2013
WWE Night of Champions 2013 (9/15/2013)- Detroit, MI
OPENING SEGMENT- Hunter announces that there will be absolutely no interference in the WWE Title match. Then Heyman comes out and tries to get out of his match. Paul E. was just awesome here. Apparently that match was made a No DQ’s match, too. Hunter tries to drive a wedge between Heyman and Axel for some reason. Axel speaks up in Paul’s defense and as a result, Hunter makes Axel defend the IC Title right now.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Curtis Axel(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Kofi Kingston- 6.5/10
Come on! Kofi pinned Axel clean in Smackdown last week! They couldn’t have just used that as justification for Hunter to give him this match? It had to be â€"the first person I come across?†Really?
Anyway, they had a very good match, including one great nearfall… that we unfortunately couldn’t see because after the two count, the director decided it would be a good idea to switch to a shot of Paul Heyman, so we missed the exciting kickout.
RVD & RICARDO BACKSTAGE- waste of time.
HEEL DIVAS BACKSTAGE- It’s been less than a week and AJ’s newfound minions have already turned on her.
FATAL FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE WWE DIVAS TITLE: AJ Lee(c) vs. Natalya vs. Brie Bella vs. Naomi-2/10
AJ playing hit and run was good, but the set-up for the double sharpshooter absolutely killed the match. Brie was pinning for Naomi for at least ten seconds and the ref just stared at them instead of counting. I also hated Nattie being the one to tap. Why not make Naomi, who barely ever wrestles, be the one to tap? Why does it always have to be Nattie who gets jobbed out?!
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Alberto Del Rio(c) vs. Rob Van Dam (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- 5.75/10
The beginnings of a good match, but not a PPV finish. Then, for no constructive reason, RVD gets the heat back by hitting a Van Terminator. This is the sort of finish that really pisses off people who buy the PPV.
HEYMAN & MCGILLICUTTY BACKSTAGE- okay
HUNTER & ORTON BACKSTAGE- huh. That's unexpected.
THE MIZ vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- 4/10
So they built this feud up on TV and were planning on doing it on the PPV... but never bothered to actually announce the match.
Fandango is the one who gets pushed with matches and TV time, but Miz is the one who goes over? WTF?
NO DISQUALIFICATION ELIMINATION HANDICAP MATCH: Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman vs. CM Punk- 6.75/10
Pretty good for what it was. Ryback makes the save for Heyman. Yeah, we all figured something like that would happen.
WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Dean Ambrose(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler-5.75/10
Very disappointing.
WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns(c) vs. The Prime Time Players- 4/10
Too short. I'd love to see these guys get more time. Titus can really be a wrecking machine. Tyler taking a flip-bump off of his shoulder tackle looked awesome.
WWE TITLE MATCH WITH NO INTERFERENCES ALLOWED WHATSOEVER: Randy Orton(c) vs. Daniel Bryan- 7.5/10
Not sure what makes this different from a regular match, but whatever.
I was extremely surprised by the finish here. The moment they showed you that the first ref was still at ringside, I was scared that were going to get a Dusty Finish. The match was great, but I am really wondering why they would just put the belt back on Dragon so soon. It seems like the only thing this can lead to is Orton turning babyface, which would be bad because Randy is a much better heel, and we already have Dragon as the top, anti-McMahon babyface, and Big Show is also doing an angle with the McMahons.
Overall... not a good show at all from WWE, with the main event, which was disappointing, considering all of its build, being the only thing that saves this from being outright bad. This felt more like a TNA PPV than a WWE one.
OPENING SEGMENT- Hunter announces that there will be absolutely no interference in the WWE Title match. Then Heyman comes out and tries to get out of his match. Paul E. was just awesome here. Apparently that match was made a No DQ’s match, too. Hunter tries to drive a wedge between Heyman and Axel for some reason. Axel speaks up in Paul’s defense and as a result, Hunter makes Axel defend the IC Title right now.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Curtis Axel(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Kofi Kingston- 6.5/10
Come on! Kofi pinned Axel clean in Smackdown last week! They couldn’t have just used that as justification for Hunter to give him this match? It had to be â€"the first person I come across?†Really?
Anyway, they had a very good match, including one great nearfall… that we unfortunately couldn’t see because after the two count, the director decided it would be a good idea to switch to a shot of Paul Heyman, so we missed the exciting kickout.
RVD & RICARDO BACKSTAGE- waste of time.
HEEL DIVAS BACKSTAGE- It’s been less than a week and AJ’s newfound minions have already turned on her.
FATAL FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE WWE DIVAS TITLE: AJ Lee(c) vs. Natalya vs. Brie Bella vs. Naomi-2/10
AJ playing hit and run was good, but the set-up for the double sharpshooter absolutely killed the match. Brie was pinning for Naomi for at least ten seconds and the ref just stared at them instead of counting. I also hated Nattie being the one to tap. Why not make Naomi, who barely ever wrestles, be the one to tap? Why does it always have to be Nattie who gets jobbed out?!
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Alberto Del Rio(c) vs. Rob Van Dam (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- 5.75/10
The beginnings of a good match, but not a PPV finish. Then, for no constructive reason, RVD gets the heat back by hitting a Van Terminator. This is the sort of finish that really pisses off people who buy the PPV.
HEYMAN & MCGILLICUTTY BACKSTAGE- okay
HUNTER & ORTON BACKSTAGE- huh. That's unexpected.
THE MIZ vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- 4/10
So they built this feud up on TV and were planning on doing it on the PPV... but never bothered to actually announce the match.
Fandango is the one who gets pushed with matches and TV time, but Miz is the one who goes over? WTF?
NO DISQUALIFICATION ELIMINATION HANDICAP MATCH: Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman vs. CM Punk- 6.75/10
Pretty good for what it was. Ryback makes the save for Heyman. Yeah, we all figured something like that would happen.
WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Dean Ambrose(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler-5.75/10
Very disappointing.
WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns(c) vs. The Prime Time Players- 4/10
Too short. I'd love to see these guys get more time. Titus can really be a wrecking machine. Tyler taking a flip-bump off of his shoulder tackle looked awesome.
WWE TITLE MATCH WITH NO INTERFERENCES ALLOWED WHATSOEVER: Randy Orton(c) vs. Daniel Bryan- 7.5/10
Not sure what makes this different from a regular match, but whatever.
I was extremely surprised by the finish here. The moment they showed you that the first ref was still at ringside, I was scared that were going to get a Dusty Finish. The match was great, but I am really wondering why they would just put the belt back on Dragon so soon. It seems like the only thing this can lead to is Orton turning babyface, which would be bad because Randy is a much better heel, and we already have Dragon as the top, anti-McMahon babyface, and Big Show is also doing an angle with the McMahons.
Overall... not a good show at all from WWE, with the main event, which was disappointing, considering all of its build, being the only thing that saves this from being outright bad. This felt more like a TNA PPV than a WWE one.