As another premium live event has concluded means another show to review. With three main events, a brand new champion guaranteed, and the implications of the Bloodline imploding WWE fans had a lot to look forward to this year for Night of Champions, now did it deliver? Let’s review.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Finals: AJ Styles vs Seth Rollins: Just like I said in the predictions piece, I did watch this match live (the only one I watched live) with a drink in my hand at 10 a.m. watching my favorite wrestler reclaim gold. This match was awesome. Styles and Rollins have such great chemistry and both of them put everything out there to win the title. The match is also currently on my MOTY just for how much of a back and forth this truly was. Everything just felt right for Rollins to win. The crowd singing his song and the let’s go Rollins chants throughout the entire match. He earned this one and I couldn’t be happier!
Winner: “And New” Seth Rollins
Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus: This match was a lot better than I expected it to be. Stratus looked a bit rough in the six women tag at Wrestlemania, but here she looked fantastic. Stratus truly showed why she is one of the greatest of all time when it comes to women’s wrestling. The pairing between Stark and Stratus can be interesting as the young up incomer can learn a lot from the Hall of Famer. Overall this was a good one, check it out.
Winner: Trish Stratus
Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs Mustafa Ali: If this match proved anything it is that Ali has heart and he will never give up. This match was as expected mostly dominated by Gunther, but every time Ali got a little bit of momentum the crowd was fully behind him and wanting him to dethrone the ring general. Seeing Ali get his moment in front of the Jedah crowd was a really touching moment to see and you can see on his face how excited he truly was. As Gunther approaches his one year anniversary of winning the title the question remains of who will be the one to dethrone him for the International Championship.
Winner: “And Still” Gunther
Raw Women’s Championship Bianca Belair vs Asuka: I really liked the ending to this match. We are so used to seeing Asuka hit the mist in the traditional way, but seeing her spray it on her hand and rub it on Belair in the midst of a KOD was so clever. The match itself was very long and at some points just did not do it for me. Very similarly to their Mania match, it just didn’t click which is no one’s fault. Even though we crowned a new champion, take nothing away from Belair who held the title for a little longer than 400 days! Now if only we can put the Raw Women’s Championship on Raw and the Smackdown Women’s Championship on Smackdown…
Winner: “And New” Asuka
Smackdown Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley vs Natayla: Well this was a squash. Ripley is on a tear right now and this match openly proved that. She is one of the main attractions to the Raw brand and she is carrying Judgement Day with ease. Ripley will be holding this title for a long time, so you better get used to it! If you watch this match back don’t blink you might miss the entire match.
Winner: “And Still” Rhea Ripley
Cody Rhodes vs Brock Lesnar: This was really interesting because I did not expect that this match was going to go into a rubber match, but now that Lesnar won I expect that is exactly what they are doing. WWE protected Rhodes by not having him tap out, but instead passing out as he would not quit throughout the entire match. Lesnar mostly dominated this whole thing with Rhodes getting little offense so now the only question is when this third match is going to happen? Assuming this takes place at SummerSlam there will be weapons galore in this one.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championships: Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa: All eyes were on this match to see if The Usos were going to turn on Roman Reigns and my god they did exactly that. Jimmy superkicked Reigns and said to Jey “I am doing what you should have done a long time ago.” The Bloodline is officially no more as Reigns heads into this Friday’s Smackdown to celebrate his 1,000 days of being WWE Undisputed Champion. As far as this match goes it went back and forth. Zayn speaking in Arabic to the crowd before the match started was awesome and the crowd loved it. Zayn and Owens finally took down the Bloodline and finished their story … unlike the American Nightmare.
Winners: “And Still” Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
Overall: This was a really fun show. I personally liked it a lot better than Double or Nothing. This card flowed nicely and a lot of things were quick paced. A lot of the matches on the show were really good too, this was not just storyline based the action was fantastic. Of course Rollins winning was the cherry on top, but overall a good show to watch on a Saturday afternoon.
