-- 9/19 WWE Night of Champions PPV Reax

Sam Weiss of San Diego, Calif. (6.0): Best Match: U.S. Title. Worst Match: Show vs. Punk. Not a very entertaining show for me as too much time was spent on, well, nothing much. The most disappointing match was the Women's unification. McCool winning was not only too predictable, but she really does suck the energy out of the auditorium. Furthermore, calling the combined belts "Unified Divas" (as one of the announcers did) subtracts from the long history of the Women's belt. The Divas match was emblematic of a PPV that just felt wrong too much of the time. ... I thought the World Hvt. Title match was slow and plodding and confusing (No Holds Barred = No count-outs?). I noticed the cut on Kane's shoulder with just a bit of blood, which was ironic as this match would have been helped with a bit more blood since it turned into a street fight, but as Cena reminded us yet again, WWE is now (even on PPVs) strictly PG. The only match I enjoyed was the U.S. Title, which came to life when Daniel Bryan performed the suicide dive. Rhodes & McIntyre winning - that was unexpected, but I find McIntyre as boring as McCool. Too bad for Dashing Cody, as I had hoped to see him break out on his own. I find his gimmick works well enough for me. ... Except for parts of the IC and U.S. title matches, and a minute or two of the Hart Foundation work, I thought the in-ring action during the whole night was pretty lame, methodical, and predictable. The only tangibly realistic emotional moment of the night was when Bryan locked on the LeBell Lock on Miz. So much of the rest of the PPV fell flat for me.

Billy Bob Tweed of Buffalo, N.Y. (7.5): Best Match: Miz vs. Daniel Bryan. Worst Match: C.M. Punk vs. Big Show. A surprisingly good PPV, but not without a few reservations. Also for worst match consideration was the Women's Title "lumberjill" bout, where most of the girls had no idea what they were doing. But the most disappointing was surely Punk vs. Show, which I thought was a lame waste after Punk set it up with a breathtaking hometown promo. The main event was good, but it was another waste eliminating Jericho so early. The ascension of Randy "the Viper" Orton is in my mind predictable and boring. Sure, he's hot with the fans right now, but where do you go with this guy? With Edge, Cena, Y2J, and even Sheamus, you get dimension and proportion to their personalities: anger, arrogance, humor, narcissism, petulance, fear, etc. But Orton offers nothing more than a rigid Anger-Bot, and that's not going to pull money out of my wallet to buy PPVs. This guy has the charisma of Sonny Liston and every opponent he faces, by simple contrast, is Muhammad Ali. The highlight of the night - and biggest surprise, by far - was Miz-Bryan Daniel. I had no great expectations for the match, but it was epic and had the family on the edge of their seats with a believable series of nearfalls and submissions. I sure would like to see a replay of Daniel hitting that announce table again, as I'm not certain if he was really hurt or simply doing an excellent job of selling.

Richard H. of Wilmington, Ohio: Night of Champions was another WWE PPV. It had a few good-to-great matches, some decent filler, and some horrible non-sense. Ziggy is over enough now that he no longer needs Vickie, so it's time to let him fly solo and show what he can do. Meanwhile, Kofi is being shuffled to mid-card purgatory with Scruffy Morrison, new Rey Bourne, and R-Tune. C.M. Punk dominated his match with Andre, Jr., only to lose to one punch. The Divas cluster was a true mess deserving of one of the worst matches of the year. It wasn't because the competitors were off their game (and they were), but because of the plethora of increasingly useless eye-candy the WWE calls Divas at ringside. ... Taker losing to Kane was a breath of fresh air in a classic old school battle of the monsters. The tag team titles were not only thrown under the bus, they were run over multiple times and rendered totally pointless. Why did Henry and Bourne get a title shot? Fortunately, WWE had two great matches to salvage some respect from this show. The Miz and Bryan Danielson tore it up in the ring with a well-executed, well-thought-out match. Congrats to Danielson for finally getting a title run and congrats to Miz for being free to pursue the Money in the Bank title shot. Somebody is going down to a Skullcrushing Finale after Hell in a Cell. As for the Six-Pack elimination challenge, it exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds. Great moves, shifting alliances, properly timed interference, and no clear favorite to win. I would have preferred Sheamus to retain his title, but this sets up RKO vs. Sheamus in a Cell while Cena will probably take on all of Nexus by himself on the same card. Edge and Jericho are now in limbo with no clear feud in sight. Last thought: why the long goodbye pause when Jericho was eliminated? Is WWE trying to sell his possible absence while he negotiates his contract?

Bob Bamber of Torquay, Devon., student (7.0): Best Match: Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz. Worst Match: Punk vs. Big Show. Good Show. Not spectacular by any means, but I enjoyed it on the whole. I thought the booking was very solid throughout. It was great to see Ziggler win clean, as he really needed that. Hopefully that ends the feud with Kofi Kingston and we see someone like Kaval go on to have a feud with Ziggler. Punk's promo was really nice, but the match didn't get me at all. Bryan vs. The Miz was a really good match. This feud built for months and the crowd really got into it in the closing stages (take note WWE). The Divas unification felt a bit more special than most divas matches, and compared to the norm, this was an above average match. Kane vs. The Undertaker was sluggish, but told a good story and thankfully Kane won clean. I really like the Tag Team Turmoil type matches, but the booking in this was terrible. No Dudebusters or Gatecrashers? (What's the point if they can't get in ahead of Bourne and Henry?) Hart Dynasty out in two minutes? And a tag team that's been together for a cup of coffee wins the belt? Not to say that this can't turn into an interesting dynamic between Rhodes/McIntyre and The Harts. I also wasn't too keen on the idea of having an elimination match right before the elimination main event. As for the main event, it was booked well, but execution was average. Cena vs. Barrett and Orton vs. Sheamus has been built for the future. Has Jericho retired? Why couldn't they have pushed the final two for much more than the 30 seconds they gave it? It was strange seeing Orton win because multi-person matches usually don't have faces go over. But, he was booked as the big favorite, so the pay-off was nice. And it's his first real run as a face champion, which will be different.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "WWE PPV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on the PPV, click here.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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