WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 from Philly

CM Punk is the champ. Orton is the champ. It's their night.

This show was in Philly. It featured two women's title matches (ugh). It also featured the biggest match of the night early (which made it fairly obvious that Orton would retain). I guess this show was supposed to be a night of straight forward title matches. No gimmicks, just some good old fashioned wrestling.

And that was probably the problem. Good wrestling rarely occurs. Jeff Hardy and HHH blew the roof off the arena last October at No Mercy. That was awhile ago, though. Has there been a match that came close to being that good since? The only matches that were very good lately have been the Mysterio vs. Jericho matches. Their feud is over, though. And this show had one feud that has been a little exciting: Hardy vs. Punk. CM Punk is now a heel. Hardy is the friendly avenger. They had the main event spotlight. Did they blow the roof off?

CHRIS JERICHO & THE BIG SHOW vs. TED DIBIASE & CODY RHODES (9:32): WWE's brilliant idea to team up Jericho and Edge as the tag champs didn't even last a month. Edge injured his foot (he had surgery and is out until next year). Jericho's big mystery opponent turned out to be The Big Show. I figured this idea to team up two single's wrestlers as a tag team was over when Edge got hurt...but they're still running with the idea. Dibiase and Rhodes lost pretty easily. Are we still duped into thinking that The Big Show is powerful and ferocious and not lunk-headed and slow? I guess the WWE thinks we forget his endless, boring matches with Cena. Jericho, however, is fast and fun and a great wrestler. It's too bad that they're wasting him. **

CHRISTIAN vs. TOMMY DREAMER (8:28): Oooh, let's punish the Philly fans! Dreamer lost the ECW Title here. Why? Because the WWE loves to punish the hometown crowd (every time they're in Oklahoma, JR gets beat up). This match was obviously a snoozer. Dreamer without chairs, trashcans, canes, or barbed wire is just a fat, pizza maker. That's harsh but true. *

+KOFI KINGSTON vs. MVP vs. CARLITO vs. PRIMO vs. THE MIZ vs. JACK SWAGGER (8:35): Kofi came into this match the champ and left the champ (it was the coveted U.S. Title from WCW). In between, the rest of the crew put on a fast-paced, fun match. Swagger was typically boring, but Carlito and Kofi and Primo were exciting. Actually this was a good match. **1/2

MICHELLE McCOOL vs. MELINA (6:12): This was the first women's match on the show (yes, there were two). And surprisingly it was very good. The reason was because they both beat the shit out of each other. It was sloppy and feral, like two dogs in a cage. Sure, they can't “wrestle.” But it was the best women's bout I've seen in awhile. **1/2

+RANDY ORTON vs. HHH vs. JOHN CENA (22:19): The threw this show on early which meant one thing: the bad guy was going to win. And he did. It was a long match and a half-decent one. It wasn't spectacular...and didn't they just have this match at Wrestlemania? Orton as the champ is getting old. He's evil. We get it. There were a few nifty moves (HHH and Cena put a submission hold on Orton at the same time and he tapped out...but the ref didn't do anything), but it wasn't anything special. Typical, really. **1/2

MICKIE JAMES vs. MARYSE (8:36): What's the chance that there would be two good women's matches on one show? Zero. Maryse is hot (and French Canadian) and Mickie can wrestle, but this match was a snooze. 1/2*

+REY MYSTERIO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (14:20): Who is Dolph Ziggler? You don't want to know. The WWE thinks a lot of him because they had Dolph push Mysterio to the limit. I'm not sure why. I'm also not sure why Mysterio has the IC title when a few years ago he had the World title. Mysterio did all of his patented moves. Dolph is hard to nail down. He's steroid big. He doesn't do much high-flying. He's utterly forgettable. **

JEFF HARDY vs. CM PUNK (14:56): I feel bad for CM Punk. He was wrestling on the Indy circuit for years (he was in ROH and wrestled once or twice for CZW). He was in TNA and eventually got his big WWE break. The WWE surprised everyone by giving him the title last summer. Sadly, he lost that title in a match he wasn't in. This year's reign was even worse. He won the title at the beginning of June and lost it here. He did get one ppv victory at The Bash, but that was by DQ. Why even give him the title if they're going to make his run so short? Perhaps they don't think he's a good wrestler. He hasn't been in a classic in the WWE yet. For some reason his matches with Jeff Hardy don't work. They tried making him a heel but that didn't work, either. This match was so-so. I guess it was obvious that he was going to lose (this was the main event...and Orton, the other bad guy, had already retained). I thought that the WWE would save a big Jeff Hardy victory for Summerslam. I was wrong. **

Night of Champions was an entertaining show but it was too simple. Yes, Jeff Hardy won the Smackdown title. That would have been a worthy event if Jeff hadn't just won the title last month at Extreme Rules. The other “big” story was having The Big Show replace Edge on Jericho's tag team. Is that a big deal? At least we won't have to sit through any Big Show solo matches. Then again, we won't be seeing a Jericho solo match for awhile.

Summerslam is up next. The mega match is CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy in a Tables, Ladders, & Chairs match. Haven't seen one of those in awhile. It's about damn time.