WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

OBA FEMI vs. JEY USO (7:56): This was the final in the King of the Ring tournament. The winner gets a title shot at Summerslam. In typical WWE fashion, Oba Femi wins but isn't getting a title shot at Summerslam. On RAW after this show, Oba Femi decided to give up his title shot so he can face Brock Lesnar in a Hell in a Cell match instead. So...was this a late decision? Because why didn't they have someone else win this tournament? It made the entire tournament pointless. Also, winning the title in pro-wrestling is supposed to be everyone's paramount objective. The title is supposed to be meaningful. Oba Femi simply giving up his title shot to wrestle someone else makes no fucking sense. This means that Oba Femi doesn't care about the title. So then why should the fans? I kind of thought that after Vince left in disgrace that the writing would be a little more logical and coherent. I guess Vince wasn't the entire problem. As for this actual match: it was all action and back and forth, so that was good. Having an 8 minute match as your tournament final is kind of lame, though. Shouldn't this be a long, dramatic, fighting tooth and nail for victory match? Not some short, superfluous thing? Eh. The WWE hasn't been good in a long time so I'm not exactly shocked at anything about this product anymore. The match in a vacuum was pretty good, though. There's that. **1/2 

IYO SKY vs. LIV MORGAN (14:56): This was the final of the Queen of the Ring tournament. Liv is the champion...so Iyo Sky winning just gets a title shot against...Liv. Who is the other champion? Rhea Ripley? She wasn't on this show for whatever reason. There was one moment when Iyo Sky was high fiving children at ringside and I was, like, maybe don't do this? I don't think boys are allowed to touch women in Saudi Arabia. Might get your hand cut off. Iyo did a bunch of high flying maneuvers. Those were exciting. The match wasn't anything special, though. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. BRON BREAKKER "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (19:04): Good match. They used a table and chairs in the cage. Seth gave Bron a superplex from the top rope through a table. Bron was bleeding from a cut on his eye. The one massive problem I have with this match is that Bron Breakker lost to Seth. He just lost to Seth on RAW a few weeks ago, too. Does the WWE not want to make new stars or something? I thought they were building Bron up to be a big, main event champion? You can't do that if he keeps losing! Baffling! ***

TRICK WILLIAMS vs. RICKY SAINTS (10:43): Unfortunately for Ricky, he's in the same position he was in AEW. I always thought in AEW that he was a good talker and good in the ring and had the potential to be a main event star. AEW never fully pushed him to that level. He was always just a mid-card guy (he did have one main event AEW championship title match on Dynamite that he lost). Considering he's losing to Trick Williams here, it looks like he's going to be a mid-card guy in the WWE forever. This match lacked excitement and drama. Nothing they did was exceptional. It just felt like a random TV match. Trick retained the U.S. title. 1/2

TIFFANY STRATTON vs. JADE CARGILL (7:40): Stratton retained the women's U.S. title here. This company is turning into AEW in that they have too many titles. The women have 2 championship titles, the Intercontinental title, the U.S. title, and the tag team title. Stratton is gorgeous, a real life Barbie doll. So I suppose just watching her should be enough. Sadly, it's not. *

SAMI ZAYN vs. CODY RHODES vs. GUNTHER (18:38): Heh. They finally gave Sami Zayn the title, two years too late. Way to go. Pat on the back. It might've been nice to have given him the title when he was a babyface and popular. That might have made sense, right? Sami Zayn is popular in Saudi Arabia because he's a Muslim. That's why they did it on this show. They even fucked the crowd pop, though, by having Sami Zayn pin Cody on a quick rollup. That meant half the crowd didn't know what happened for a few moments and that instant surge of crowd approval didn't happen at once. They had a perfect way to end this match and didn't do it. Sami gave Gunther an Exploder Suplex and a Helluva Kick and a but Gunther kicked out at 2. Jesus Christ. That was the perfect ending to the match! Have him win there! How is this company so full of morons? The rest of the match was good but not great. Sami is a heel now in the states, so he'll be booed as champion everywhere. It could have all been different. It could have been something special...once. Oh, well. **1/2