WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Night of Champions Rundown

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another edition of the PPV Rundown. It has been a while since I've done one of these, so not sure how well this will come out. Today, we will rundown WWE Night of Champions. For a quick recap in how I do the rundown, here's how it works. I will talk about every match and try to talk about it from every prospective possible. I will also break it down into who should win, who creative will pick, and then I throw in a prediction of my very own, but they are mainly just for fun. Well, let's begin.

Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix for the Divas Championship
The buildup to this match has kinda been all over the place. When the WWE first had Beth and Natalya turn heel to take down the barbie doll divas, I thought this might have been interesting. As the storyline went forward, it just seems to be at a stand still. I don't really like how they have built up this storyline since Kelly is the one competing every week while Beth is just standing in a corner giving her a pitty applause. Remember when Kharma showed up earlier in the year? She made an impression by just showing up and beating divas up. Beth and Natalya haven't taken that route and really come off more as sore losers than dominate divas. I will admit Kelly has improved over the years, but she's not deserving of the championship. She pulls in mediocre wrestling matches and her personality....well, it sucks. In fact, she might give new meaning to the phrase "she's gone from suck to blow". Some people might think I'm being too harsh on Kelly, but I've seen other model based women's wrestlers do a lot more than Kelly. In fact, Michelle McCool, Layla, and even Candice Michelle are all ladies I felt made a lot more strides and put more effort than Kelly. In fact, I believe Kelly only got the title because WWE was up against a wall in what to do with the division. She also hasn't been a very good champion during her time. In fact, she does so little with the belt that you almost forget she IS the champ. I am also not too fond of her character. Her character should be this individual who wants to take down the mean girls, but she comes off more as an air head who has no idea what she's doing and just prays nobody can figure out how to kick out of a roll up. I hope we see a change really soon after Sunday.

Who should win:
Beth is clearly the superior choice. They have built up this "change" Beth and Natalya want. They got unlucky the first time, but they should dominate the barbie doll this time around.

Who creative will pick:
I can see creative give this to Kelly, but I think they realize they need to make a change as well.

My final pick:
Kelly won the first match, but I don't see her winning this match a second time. Beth beats her cleanly and hopefully this storyline and division can move forward after this.

Dolph Ziggler vs Jack Swagger vs Alex Riley vs John Morrison; Fatal 4Way for the US Championship
The storyline here is an interesting one, and it involves the two heels as opposed to the good guys. The story here is Dolph and Vickie Guerrero are at each other's throats with their...."relationship". In the meantime, Swagger has been seeking the managerial services of Vickie. This has started a heated argument between the heels thinking only one of them is worthy of Vickie. In the meantime, Riley was the other guy who was involved in all of this since he was the catalyst for Vickie and Dolph starting to get some friction between one another. Morrison on the other hand is.....pretty much throw in at the last second. Man, even when he won his rivalry with R-Truth, Morrison still got pushed to the back. Then again, Morrison is going to have to do a lot to climb his way to the top. I know the IWC loves Morrison, but he just falls into the category in which he can do a lot of cool moves but his character is just average. Some people say Morrison's current spot is an injustice, but I think he's in the best spot for him at the moment. When Morrison got injured, opportunity opened up. Guys like Truth and CM Punk took that opportunity while Morrison wasn't doing a whole lot with his opportunity. In the wrestling business, you have to work hard not only for your pushes, but to maintain them. Morrison didn't maintain it, which is why he is playing the role of filler/high spot galore in this match. A number of things can happen in this match. I can see Vickie screwing over Dolph and making sure Jack wins the title. I can see an alliance form between Dolph and Swagger. I can see Riley steal the championship, but I also can't rule out the possibility of Dolph retaining the championship. This is definitely one of the tougher matches to determine who will win since it seems pretty wide open. Then again, that's a good thing since I like unpredictability in pro wrestling.

Who should win:
I talked about the possibility of Riley winning, but I think he isn't quite ready to win the title. I would like to see more buildup for Riley's character. He's getting a decent response from the live audiences on a weekly basis and has the tools to go far, but let's take some baby steps and not rush this. For the most part, not really sure who should win. Right now, signs should be pointing to Swagger, but it's a toss up.

Who creative will pick:
Creative will at least try to move forward with the Vickie Guerrero storyline. Outside of moving the storyline forward, not really sure who they will pick to win this contest.

My final pick:
I really have no idea who to pick going into this match. For the time being, I pick Swagger to be the new US Champ.

Air Boom vs Awesome Truth for the WWE Tag Team Championships
In case you're still a little lost in what's going on here, it's Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne vs R-Truth and Miz for the tag titles. There really isn't much of a storyline going into this contest in terms of the tag titles. The storyline really is more with Miz and Truth, who feel there is a conspiracy in the WWE and want to expose the truth. You can argue what the hell does getting the tag titles have to do with the conspiracy, but I stopped trying to make sense out of Truth a long time ago. The other factor in this storyline is Truth and Miz feel they are getting mistreated in terms of star exposure, so they want to take the titles to show they mean business. In that sense, Truth and Miz going after the titles actually does make sense. On the other side of the coin, you have Air Boom. A relatively new tag team in the mix, but with rumors circling around of WWE re-amping the tag division, Air Boom can definitely be the corner stone in the project. Some people might accuse the WWE of bailing out on the project by giving the titles to Miz and Truth, but you have to keep in mind those rebuilding the tag division talk is on the websites and dirt sheets. Believe it or not IWC, a lot of those reports are false at times. I do hope the tag division does get a wake up call because it has been dead for over a decade in the WWE. I realize tag team wrestling will never be big or a draw, but you can at least make it interesting. Then again, this is one of the bigger matches for the division, so that has to be a positive, right? I think Truth and Miz can somewhat help the tag division. Remember JeriShow? They did pretty well when going into tag team wrestling and I can see Awesome Truth doing the same.

Who should win:
It probably makes the most sense to give the titles to Miz and Truth. Then again, why invest time and energy to create Air Boom only to pull the plug on it so soon? This one can go either way.

Who creative will pick:
Again, I can see creative pick either one of these teams to win, but I have to think they would be leaning towards Miz and Sunny from Coco Puffs.

My final pick:
I want to see Air Boom win, but for the time being; I will pick Miz and Truth to become the new tag champs.

Randy Orton vs Mark Henry for the WHC
A match that has an interesting story going into it. I don't care what people say, but Henry has earned this opportunity. He is arguably the best heel over on Smackdown and he should get a main event program with Orton. The buildup to this rivalry is simple. Henry is so dominate that even Orton is struggling to find some offense, meaning he is really stuck between a rock and a hard place going into this contest. I can see a lot of people picking Henry to win this match, but what I think will end up happening is something along the lines of a DQ or a countout to keep this rivalry going. The next PPV is Hell in a Cell. What I can see happen is either Henry or Orton cause some sort of a DQ and elect to put them in the HIAC, that way there is no place to run. It cliche storytelling by WWE, but it does the job. I think it would be a mistake for Orton to win this feud cleanly at the PPV. Now, I reckon a lot of people would be happy to see this rivalry end at NoC because "Henry can't wrestle, blah, blah, blah". While I agree Henry isn't the most entertaining to watch in a wrestling match, this is probably the best I've seen out of Henry in his 15 year WWE career and I want to see what he can do against Orton. The other reason I see this rivalry continuing after this PPV is because I don't see anyone else in line to take on Orton. Sheamus is the next best choice, but we can wait until the end of the year to put Sheamus out there. Plus, he's building up a big fanbase with his recent face turn and it would be a mistake to just throw him in Orton's lion den. Wade Barrett's stock has flip flopped more times than John Kerry and Cody Rhodes isn't quite ready for a world title push. As of right now, Henry is the superior choice to work the next few PPVs against Orton.

Who should win:
Henry has worked a 15 year career and has never won a world title. It would be sort of a nice send off since this guy is nearing retirement in the next year or so, but not everyone can have a happy ending in the WWE. Not really a big Orton fan, but I think he should take the first contest by some sort of a DQ or shenanigans.

Who creative will pick:
Creative has really built up the fact that Orton almost has no chance in hell of winning, but how many times have we seen WWE write this storyline? In fact, watch John Cena's storylines against Umaga and Great Khali and the formula is roughly the same. Since creative books Orton to have more magic powers than Dumbledore, they will find a way of not making Orton look weak.

My final pick:
I pick Orton to win, but I see this rivalry continuing into the next PPV.

Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena for the WWE Championship
For the most part, a match that has had some rather poor buildup. I know some people will say I am being overly harsh against that since Del Rio was off TV for one week because of visa issues. Even if you take that out of play, there was still two weeks to build up the match and WWE hasn't made the most out of that time. Reckon, WWE has decided to roll with Punk vs Triple H to be the main focal point of the PPV, but that's no reason to make your world title match have such low hype. One of the reasons I don't find myself interested in this match is Del Rio himself. When he got the championship, I wasn't quite sure if he was ready. Del Rio did well in the first week of his championship reign, but he hasn't added anything to his victory since. He's still pulling in slightly better than X Pac heat and he's kinda boring to watch. To be fair, he's still early in this championship reign and throwing the book at him might be a little early, but it didn't take long for the Miz to make some sort of impact when he won the championship. I just felt some creative members are really high on Del Rio, which is why he gets special treatment. Some people are waiting to piss all over me when I say that, but I look back in his 13 months with the company and I've never seen one guy get so much handed to him in such a short amount of time. He had weeks and weeks of vignette videos to hype up his character of some cliche rich man. He takes out Rey Mysterio right away and a few months after that, he already wins the Royal Rumble. He's in one of the main event slots in WrestleMania 27 and nearly wins the WHC on several occasions. They quickly send him from SD to Raw to be on the A show and eventually wins MITB. Of course, with the MITB win, he gets a world title. If you look at all the time, money (those cars are costing the WWE money no matter how you look at it), and scree time, it almost begs the question what is it the WWE sees out of Del Rio that a lot of us are missing? While I admit Del Rio is a good wrestler and has an interesting character, I just feel his character resorts to catchphrase and doesn't really go the extra mile to look like a special heel. His heel character is very cliche when you break it down. In fact, JBL had this character during his WWE Championship reign many years ago. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at this. JBL was a self made millionaire. To be fair, JBL really did earn that money in real life, but I am referring to the established kayfabe. JBL talked about how better he was than you because he had money and would use his money to buy himself out of sticky situations. He would eventually get henchmen to do his dirty work and would always run away from a fight. There is so much similarities with JBL and Del Rio that it isn't even funny. Do you know what my favorite part of Del Rio is? Ricardo Rodriguez. Yeah, I'm not joking either. There is something about this guy that makes me laugh. I love the way he calls out Del Rio's name and he totally looks like a guy who will do anything for a paycheck. He's pretty funny as well. It's almost because of Rodriguez that Del Rio pulls in a little better than average of a crowd response. Now, you think with everything I said that I hate Del Rio. That isn't the case because I kinda like the guy. I see a lot of potential with the guy and I feel he can be a good champion, but he really needs to step us his game and stop with being so cliche and generic to make himself a big star. What can help Del Rio is working with Cena, but how well will Del Rio come out of this rivalry? Del Rio is a guy who wins via submission, and there's NO WAY the WWE is going to have Cena tap out. Sorry guys, but you might as well toss that idea out the window. Remember, Cena "will never give up", so that will remain with him for a really long time. I mainly expect Del Rio to outsmart Cena or cheat in order to win. Why not? JBL did it, right?

Who should win:
Based on what I've talked about, Del Rio needs something to really get himself over. He simply needs the win. If Del Rio loses, it will show WWE creative made a mistake in giving Del Rio the special treatment and I don't think they are nowhere near ready to pull the plug on this project.

Who creative will pick:
Del Rio will either use a weapon, cheat, or cause a DQ or countout to win or throw the match. Kinda odd that both world title matches could end in some sort of a DQ at the moment. Hey, as long as they don't spray something in their eyes in three of the matches, then I think we are good.

My final pick:
This will be sort of an odd pick. My prediction is Del Rio will WALK OUT as the WWE Champion. I'm not saying he will win or lose, but he should walk out with the championship. Make of this whatever you will, but I did warn you my personal picks don't mean s***.

CM Punk vs Triple H; If Trips loses, he is no longer the COO of the WWE
Now we come to the match that is geared as the true main event and has a lot of hype going into the match. First, a quick recap in how we got to this point. Really, you can say this whole rivalry started well before Trips started showing up on screen again. This is a continuation of Punk's leaving the WWE storyline back in June when he cut that promo. When Punk won the championship and left the WWE, we had a show in which the main prize was no longer in tact. In terms of storyline, Vince McMahon was relieved of his everyday duties and was replaced by the Game. When the Game took over and we finally crowned a new WWE Champion, we had a unsuspected surprise with the original WWE champ in Punk returning. Meaning, we had two WWE Champions on the same show, but we only needed one. It was decided that it would be Punk vs Cena where the winner is the Undisputed WWE Champion, with Trips as the special guest referee. The match happened at SummerSlam and it lead to Punk winning the championship, but that was only the beginning of how this storyline would play out. Kevin Nash would show up and take out Punk, which lead to Del Layfield showing up and stealing the championship with the MITB briefcase. We were lead to believe that Nash and Hunter were working together on this whole deal. Not to mention people like John Laurinaitis, Stephanie, and possibly Vince McMahon, the talk of conspiracy seemed to be in place and it seemed they were targeting the individual who started this "realism" phase in the WWE, CM Punk. Punk was trying to expose the truth and find out why people are stopping him on his quest of change while there have been road blocks in the way. Signs were saying Trips was playing dirty, but was perhaps a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. For weeks, Nash would show up and it seemed Punk and Nash were set to do battle at NoC, but because of a change, Trips ended up being the guy. Nash was eventually "fired" by the Game, which has lead to a heated exchange between Punk and Trips that has really become a personal matter between the two. Trips questions how a guy like Punk can be a big superstar in professional wrestling while Punk is tired of all the cliche things that happen in wrestling and wants to see a change.

With the way this rivalry has been built up, I find it very interesting. I think most people would consider this the best rivalry at the moment with the time and energy both guys have put forth. Both Punk and Triple H have said some things that make a lot of sense from where they are coming from. I like how Trips acts like Punk can't be in the main event, because this is exactly what's happening in the IWC. See, it was only a matter of time until the IWC started to turn on Punk. I'm almost convinced the IWC hates anything that's popular in wrestling, but I digress. Despite the haters on Punk, he has cut promo after promo and continues to get an overwhelming response from the crowd. If you look at the show, Punk is one of the Top Five guys who gets the loudest reaction in the WWE, and that's with people like Cena, Orton, and Trips all present. I think it's pretty clear the casual fans are taking a liking to Punk to some extent and the guy has earned his spot. Besides, if the WWE had no faith in Punk, why would they let him be the main event for three straight PPVs? The WWE wouldn't have someone main event that many times in a row unless creative had a lot of support in him or the guy has simply paid his dues. Punk has busted his ass for years to get to the spot he has earned and I think he deserves his time to shine, regardless if he's the champ or not. A lot of questions surrounding with Trips going into this match, but I think the main one is will he turn heel and did he set this whole thing up on Punk? Has Punk been the mastermind this whole time and is he planning on showing his heelish colors? I don't think so since Punk is a different type of face (tweener) and he seems to be doing fine with getting cheers, so I don't think I would have him turn into a complete heel again. Will Nash be getting involved in the match? Will Trips lose his COO position or will the guy make a deal with the devil? Not really sure about that, but it will be great seeing what kind of story the WWE tells this Sunday when Punk and Trips square off since there are a lot of possibilities with this match. Another one of the most common complaints with this match is many people felt the WWE rushed this entire thing. I can agree to some extent that the WWE has gone a little fast forward with all of this since they probably want the Rock and Cena to be the major confrontation at Survivor Series (along with other things if you've seen the reports. I won't spoil it for you and I request you don't spoil it for everyone else). Things might have been rushed and people will think because of that there are flaws with this storyline, but I still think it's the best storyline currently going on in the WWE and it tells a great story. It might be a little confusing with all this conspiracy talk going around, but I expect we will get some answers at NoC.

Who should win:
Punk has made a lot of strides and has been impressive, but Punk still needs a few more big time wins to really show he belongs. Punk is still looked at as the underdog and thus he should win.

Who creative will pick:
If Punk wins, Trips is no longer the COO. If that's the case, who calls the shots next? Johnny Ace? Stephanie? Maybe the return of Vince McMahon? If Trips wins, will he cheat or will someone screw Punk over? I think there are all questions creative is looking at in regards to all of this.

My final pick:
This ones a tough one since it can go either way. I can see Trips turning heel, but I also wonder if WWE will let Punk get the clean victory? A clean win will do wonders for a guy like Punk. I'm going to pick the Chicago native in CM Punk to win this match.

That's going to do it for the Rundown, I hope you enjoyed it. There is still a chance a match or two will be added to the card. In fact, I can see a match between Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase for the IC Championship. Since no announcement was made as of yet, I can't really talk about it. If it happens, Cody has to win to continue his buildup. If they continue to build up Cody, he could be a world champion by next year. Might be a little late to consider Rhodes getting a world title this year, but I can't rule that out as a possibility. I watched a little bit of Smackdown this week and I thought the show was alright. I really liked the rap between Truth and Miz. One of the funnier moments of the evening. Edge was great this week as well. It's a shame his career was cut short, because it would be great to see the old Edge, but at least his mic skills gives you enough to remember his time in the ring. The original Sin Cara returned this week and now we begin the Sin Cara vs Evil Sin Cara to protect Angel Grove....er, the WWE Universe. This was my prediction when Sin Hunico stated performing as Sin, so nice to see WWE hasn't completely bailed on Sin and realize he established the character in Mexico and he shouldn't be downgraded for his accomplishments because of a few botches. Did you ever think Sin moves so fast that the rest of the talent can't keep up with him? There are other factors in Sin's struggles, but I find it funny when people already want the public lashing on this guy because of a few messy spots. The guy is still incredibly over with the WWE Universe and I think deserves more time to show what he's capable of. There was some more development between Sheamus and Christian, so I like what they are doing in that department. So, that's a very, very, VERY, quick review on Smackdown. I won't rank the shows for this week, but I will pick an MVP of the Week. This came down to Robert Roode, and the combination of Miz/Truth and Punk/Trips. I am going to give it to Awesome Truth for this week. I'm well aware Punk and Trips had the better week, but it was something I couldn't resist. Tell me what you thought of the rundown and what you think will happen at NoC. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.