By Phil Allely
Night of the Champions is the only WWE Pay-Per-View in the year that promises that each and every title belt in the company will be on the line. 2010’s offering had all seven belts up for grabs in some really well thought out bouts and involving storylines.
The event opened well with Kofi Kingston challenging Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Gold, the presence of Ziggler’s lady friend Vickie Guerrero and her NXT rookie Kaitlyn certainly added to proceedings, Ziggler and Kingston worked very well to ensure things started with a bang.
The Big Show and CM Punk followed with what was to be their fedu ending encounter, Show having already wiped out Punk’s Straight Edge Society hangers on. The David/Goliath match-up worked well and although short in duration did show both men to be worthy opponents.
Next United States Champion The Miz faced the thorn in his side that was Daniel Bryan, the pair having fallen out over Bryan’s NXT tenure and their resulting battles made for great viewing throughout 2010, this US title scrap was a superb addition to them. The end result was a surprise to many, but well deserved.
The decision to unify the Divas and Women’s titles was perhaps a good idea, although the historical nature of the Women’s belt was storied, the Divas one had nothing going for it and was lost on many viewers/audiences when it was defended. Melina and Michelle McCool (who had won the right to defend her co-owned belt over Layla) pulled off a very good match, Melina especially showing some great aptitude and in-ring smarts against McCool’s at times lumbering and awkward moves. Having as many of the female roster on hand as Lumber ills (well it was a Lumberjack style match) added to the tension and gave male viewers lots of eye candy too.
The Kane/Undertaker matches had really heated up by this point in the year and although Taker was showing signs of pain he never faltered in giving his all against his storyline brother. This match for Kane’s World Heavyweight strap was nicely paced and showed both big men to their best. The result was a bit of a shock and certainly cemented Kane as a main eventer once again.
Tag Team Turmoil for the tag belts added some speed and energy to the mix, with champs The Hart Dynasty putting their prized possessions on the line against a bevy of WWE pairings. The encounter between the Harts/Uso’s were great, the Harts being knocked out of the proceedings early ramped up the tension too. Kozlov/Marella had a fun few minutes against the Uso’s, Bourne and Mark Henry fared well in their scrap with Rhodes/McIntyre and the finish was a crisp one as well.
The main event Six Pack Challenge for the WWE Championship had it all face/heel team-ups, surprise eliminations, a Nexus run-in and an all important title change that set up some new feuds and storylines within the WWE universe. The match itself saw WWE Champ Sheamus battle against John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Chris Jericho and Wade Barrett. Each man seemingly a possible new champion in the waiting. The alliances made within the bout were short lived, but entertaining, Edge, Orton, Sheamus, Cena and Barratt had some great interactions, Jericho’s quick elimination and some nice set pieces. The end of course is now no surprise as Orton overcame title holder Sheamus to raise his seventh championship.
Night of the Champions was one of the better PPV’s of 2010 from the WWE and the DVD will make a good addition to fans collections, the event itself is worth re-viewing a few times and has a lot going for it, extras wise there is only a reaction from Kane about his victory over Taker, but then sometimes extras can be minimal anyway and offer very little in the way of added value anyway.
WWE Night of the Champions 2010 is available from January 3rd 2011 via www.silvervision.co.uk
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