Live Report & Off Air Notes From Night Of Champions

Credit: Andy Long & Prowrestling.net

I got to my seat I was 10 seats to the right of the hard camera. The crowd slowly trickled in but once the main show started it was mainly full not a sellout. The upper deck behind the hard camera was tarped off. I don’t remember it being tarped off at Payback, so maybe there was less of a gate this time.

The Tag Team Turmoil a good opener to get the crowd hot but two botched moves – one with Tons of Funk, the other with The Usos – led to some groans (glad it was on Youtube). I think the Prime Time Players were a good fit to win, as they got a lot of pops from the crowd.

The pay-per-view felt like a glorified Raw. I imagined once Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel came out, Triple H would make another match. Axel is still very green on the mic.

Kofi Kingston vs. Curtis Axel: Slow methodical match that you could have seen on Raw.

Diva’s Four-way: I do love when they have these matches early in PPV’s as they can just get them out of the way, not really much to say here. Here’s hoping there developing female wrestlers that are pretty at the WWE Performance Center AJ Lee and Natalya have the most skills which I think tried to cover for Brie Bella and Adrianne inexperience.

RVD vs. Alberto Del Rio: You can tell they didn’t go crazy as I think they just going to be running with this as a continued storyline. The standard RVD spots are always nice to see along with the coast to coast chair shot that you hardly ever see anymore. The medical staff did attend to Del Rio, but I saw no X sign from the ref maybe just a little precaution. Scary to think where Sandow fits into all of this.

C.M. Punk Punk vs. Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel: It was a great pop for Punk as always the match was good once Axel lost it was great to see Punk get a little revenge but you knew somebody was going to come in. New Heyman guy, same old story. Ryback delivered a good spear and the cut wasn’t as bad as Bob Holly’s so that nice. (Side note it was nice to see CM Punk throw out one of the ceremonial first pitches at Comerica Park for the Tigers vs. Royals game even though he is a Cubs fan. He did the double of Tigers and WWE in the same day it was fun!!!!!!!!!!)

Miz vs Fandango: Like watching paint dry, leave it on Raw (sorry for the bad pun.)

Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler: Two people who are not used enough and not given enough time. Ziggler was the best bump taker and Ambrose, the guy who could be the next great heel I think. I liked the match, watching two of the people who make matches enjoyable to watch on TV these days, but keep the heat on The Shield and keep the belt.

Prime Time Players vs. The Shield: This was actually, believe it or not, a great match too. I don’t know if people saw it on TV but Titus O’Neil had some great power spots that got some big pops from the crowd made me think we could be a great singles guy down the road, but a little more experience would go along way too.

Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan: Good match. When I looked at my watch and it said 10:30 I was like I don’t think they have enough time to have a good match but from the start it flowed. Bryan is always fun to watch with the suicide dives. The ref bump occurred that I think everyone expected, after Triple H made it no interference the new ref came down the to the ring very quickly so no interference, which I thought was great but the ending which was good for Bryan, who is way over with The WWE Universe and everybody else. I thought they just continued the storyline. Yeah, it was quick count, but Bryan and Orton did put on a good match.

In closing, a predictable, use no blood, go a bit beyond the PG product to make Raw and Smackdown and PPV’s more interesting to watch. They need more shock and awe moments. Last night was rough. I don’t have a match of the night because like everybody else I called it a glorified Raw. WWE is in a lull at the moment.

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