In a few weeks we are going to be confronted with what may be my least favorite PPV of the year, Night of Champions. I made the same complaint last year around this time, but for those that may have missed it, allow me to quickly fill you in. The “gimmick” of Night of Champions is that every single title will be up for grabs. The only problem with that is that the big championships (WWE championship, World Heavyweight) are up for grabs every single month, regardless of the PPV. So in essence, what Night of Champions is promising is that they will be sure to give you title matches for the titles that nobody really cares about.
But the bigger problem is that Night of Champions should be a really big deal. After all, theoretically, shouldn’t everyone in the locker room be constantly trying to obtain these titles? These championships are the holy grails of the WWE, and every wrestler should be after them. Currently there are 84 active wrestlers according to wwe.com (yea I counted them) and seven championships. With those numbers how is it that I am finding it hard to care about any of the championship reigns at all. Lets break this down.
United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro who doesn’t have an opponent at NOC yet currently holds this title. With only having just won the title a little over a week ago, I don’t want to say that he’s not done anything with the title, but the fact remains that a sock that has a crush on Aksana is overshadowing his storyline. This title was also put on the pre-show at SummerSlam, not the highest of honors. The last time I cared about who the US Champion was, was during the Dolph and Zack Ryder feud of late last year. But since then, we’ve had Swagger, Santino, and now this guy just kind of caring the belt around.
Tag Team Champions: They just can’t seem to get this division off the ground can they? Great tag teams (Like Awesome Truth) get torn apart by wellness violations. Kofi seems trapped with a revolving door of tag team partners. The Prime Time Players seemed to be getting the push for a major tag team only to have their spokesman removed right before their title shot. Current tag team champs R-Truth and Kofi have held the title for over 120 days right now but it doesn’t seem like that much of an accomplishment. Rather it seems like they’ve had the titles for so long because somebody has to be champ and it might as well be them.
Diva’s Championship: Like the tag team champions, it feels like the biggest reason that Layla has been champion for so long is because somebody has to be champion and there’s no real reason that it shouldn’t be her. At my most optimistic I hope that the fact that Kaitlyn is number one contender for this match (making a face vs. face match) might lead to some interesting storytelling elements, but more likely than not, Layla just needed a new opponent since this title has to be defended at NOC.
Intercontinental Champion: If there is one championship I’m really holding out hope for it’s this one. After what felt like a whole streak of not caring about this belt, Cody Rhodes went a long way to making it relevant again. Add to that that Miz has done some impressive work in the short time that he has been champ, and there is hope here yet. What this needs now is a good, impressive, multi month rivalry for the title, one that can make both the Miz and his opponent look good. I don’t know who Miz is going against (apparently not Rey since he’s out again) but hopefully that feud will start at NOC.
World Champion: Did you know that Sheamus has been champion since WrestleMania? I sure didn’t. I had to look it up, because since winning his 18-second match, Sheamus hasn’t put on a single memorable match. Sure they have been fine, average matches, but nothing to make you feel like a title of some kind is on the line. In fact until I looked up each PPV card since April, I wasn’t able to remember a single title defense from Sheamus. Punk? I remember all of Punk’s matches. (Jericho rematch, Daniel Bryan, Daniel Bryan and Kane, Daniel Bryan with AJ as ref, Big Show and John Cena) For a title that’s supposed to be on par with the WWE Championship (even though we all know that it isn’t) this is quite lackluster. It’s not even that I want Sheamus to lose. It’s that I quite simply don’t care who’s World Heavyweight Champion.
WWE Champion: Ok here we go. This is a match that I can get excited about. Punk and Cena can be, if billed right, the closest thing that WWE has to a present day Stone Cold, and Rock. But this only proves the point further. Any other month and any other PPV, this match would still be on the card, and most likely be the main event. Yes the WWE championship is important and I’m even fine with saying that it’s the most important thing in the company, but that doesn’t make other titles unimportant. It takes time to build up feuds, situations, and storylines. You can’t simply give somebody a title shot the week before a PPV and expect it to have any sort of lasting reaction. Yet that’s the formula for filling the NOC card every year.
