WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Night of Champions 2013 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Night of Champions 2013. Would this evening be able to offer something to the table? Let's find out and begin. 

Is there still an Intercontinental title? 

We open up the show with Triple H's ego. Once the guy pretty much mentions everything that's happened to Daniel Bryan, Paul Heyman tries to bargain with Trips since he announced his match against CM Punk would be a No DQ match. You have to love how heels freak out over the fact the match is now No DQ. They're actually giving you the option to cheat. You can probably use a hand grenade as a weapon. Hey, it's no DQ, right? Since Curtis Axel didn't have the IC title on the line and Punk would use the championship as toilet paper, it's decided to give the title match to the first person Trips runs into. I think Kofi Kingston lucked out in that department since it was originally gonna be cameraman #9087234, but my guess is Trips gave Kofi the match since he washed his car over the weekend. Just because the corporation's evil doesn't mean they can have dirty cars. The match was given a decent amount of time and it ended when Curtis hits the most unconvincing finisher ever. I'm sorry if you like this finisher, but it looks like the person who receives this move is intentionally taking a dive. The rest of his in-ring skills are fine, but get rid of the… Un-neckbreaker. Congratulations to Axel for keeping the IC…

My guess is he kept the belt since nobody else wanted to hold onto it for the remainder of this month. I mentioned a few months ago that Axel would most likely hold onto the IC title and do nothing with it until it comes time to give it to the next guy, and that's exactly what's happened thus far. I know it's prestigious and historic, but if you aren't gonna do anything with it, you might as well retire the title. I want to see more done with the mid-card championships and I know the WWE is capable of writing storylines for these belts, but it seems like they really don't want to. I know it seems harsh saying something like that, but it might be better to get rid of one of these titles. I want to see things change with this division, but it's more of an afterthought in the current era of the WWE. 

Crazy divas

Layla and AJ were a 'team' a few weeks ago, but now it's like it never happened? My guess is Layla got amnesia last week and is still in the recovery process. In all fairness, it makes sense for AJ to fly solo in this storyline, so I don't mind the abrupt change. The Fatal 4-Way diva match wasn't too shabby. Not something I would watch again, but it was decent under the circumstances. AJ made Natalya tap out to the Black Widow. You think that the Total Divas would work together to make sure AJ lost the match, but not even their egos and attention spans would allow such a thi--hey, a housefly! It made sense for AJ to keep the championship since she's still the best thing going in the divas division and that's all I got on this scene. Okay, next match. Let's go! Let's go! Next one! GO!!!

There's some matches here and stuff

RVD defeated Alberto Del Rio and became the new WHC. Ricardo then turned on him after the match to his new client, Damien Saaaaaaaaaaaandooooooooooow. The two celebrated with a mojito… De nada!!!

No, that's not what happened. It would've been more exciting if this was the story, but all that occurred was RVD winning the match via DQ since Alberto refused to listen to the referee's orders, thus Del Rio is still the WHC. RVD did hit the Van Terminator…

The match was okay to sit through, but it was the lack of a storyline that really kept me for getting into this contest. I almost forgot the match even happened. That's how little of an impact it made in my book. In fact, the Miz/Fandango match also falls in the same category. I almost forgot this happened. Miz won the match with the Figure Four in case you were curious. Were you? Probably not…

Hey look, the PPV wants to do something…

It's now time for the handicap match between Punk, Axel, and Heyman. So, why is this called a handicap match? Based on what I saw and the rules to the match, it sounded like Punk would get a match with Heyman if he beat Axel. Isn't this more of a Gauntlet match rather than a handicap contest? I get what they're trying to do here, but what crack did you smoke to end up with these rules? It's like they took a bunch of rules, threw them against a wall and *BAM*, instant match. While the IC champ is good enough to defeat Kofi, he stood no chance against Punk, proving that this storyline has nothing to do with Axel and is more of a pawn in this entire thing. It really shouldn't be that surprising since all Axel's done for 4-5 months is shine Heyman's shoes. Punk finally gets Heyman! He's gonna get you, Paul! Run, chubby run!!! Look at him go!!! The chase scene was almost like watching a nature special, but instead of a cheetah eating a gazelle, it was a wrestler beating up a balding man. Still, it was very entertaining. After a few rounds of smacking the Heyman Pinata, the match ends when Ryback arrives and sends Punk through a table. Thanks to the attack, Heyman was able to pick the bones and Pauly defeated Punk. Waaaaaaaaa? Yeah, so Ryback attacking Punk was a bit of a surprise. In fact, it was at this moment where the PPV started to wake up for a bit. It was about time something different occurred, but better later than never. Ryback being the latest edition of 'Paul Heyman guys' is a welcome edition. Since Ryback has pretty much regressed to the role of Biff Tannen on a weekly basis, teaming up with Heyman will offer him a lot more. I actually like Ryback getting in the middle of this rivalry and I don't mind the Punk/Heyman feud continuing since I felt it would've been somewhat disappointing to see this rivalry end at NoC. Don't get me wrong, I can understand as to why the feud would end, but it just feels like Punk and Heyman can do a lot more. The match was investing enough to be intriguing and the ending continues to get me coming back to check out this rivalry, so I think this was a positive for NoC…That's one thus far…

Shield antics

I was a bit surprised to see Dean Ambrose defeat Dolph Ziggler in clean fashion. A win like this is gonna put Ambrose's stock on the rise. When it eventually comes time to break up the Shield, Ambrose will most definitely have a place on the active roster. Unfortunately, this win does come at a cost to the Ziggler fans. I know this is gonna make the 'Dolph's jobbing' comments more loud, but I'm still optimistic that Dolph still has a decent place in the future of this company and this minor setback is only for the time being. I know it's kinda odd that I personally see challenging the US title more rewarding than the WHC since the WHC has dropped so much value and the US title is being held by one of the corporation members, but that's just how I see it at the moment. I will say the US title match between Ambrose and Dolph was about what I expected, but part of me felt a bit of a letdown when it wasn't given as much time as I would've liked. It was still a good match, but I felt it could've been better if given a few more minutes. Speaking of the Shield, the tag team match between Rollins/REIGNS and the Prime Time Players was next on the schedule. I should note that the PTP won the Tag Team Turmoil match in the pre-show. The fact this was regulated to the pre-show was puzzling. It was a good match and it was a shame it was subjected to pre-show status. In fact, why wasn't Miz/Fandango given the pre-show treatment? Mr. Pre-Show must've slipped a $20 and got himself on the PPV. Anyway, the tag team match was okay and it ended with the Shield retaining the title. If you're keeping score at home, we have one match to go and there's been no championship changes thus far. To be honest, I expected that to be the case since none of the titles were being built to change hands, but surely we gotta get one, right…right…right?

Corporation not too sure of themselves? 

The final match of the night was Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship. Just like the Punk match, this was one of the few moments where it felt like the PPV was actually trying to do something. The match between Randy and Bryan was good and I would say it was the best match of the night, but it didn't have a ton of competition so I would consider this a small reward. Bryan hits the running knee and has finally defeated Randy…

Yeah, we have a new WWE Champion… Surprised? I would have to say so… but we obviously aren't addressing the giant elephant in the room in all of this. The referee made a fast count for Bryan, thus this is gonna be the basis for Raw. In fact, it's almost a guarantee for Bryan to get stripped of his championship on Raw and possibly end up in the hands of Orton. I should note that at the time I'm writing this, I have NOT watched Raw and this is all speculation at the moment. We'll talk about Raw in the Raw review for this week, but I'm just sticking to what occurred at NoC and only NoC for this review. Just wanted to get that out there in case somebody wanted to be the 'know-it-all' smark. I actually do like the ending to this show since that fast count is gonna keep you guessing as to what's gonna happen on Raw. It's nice to stir the pot a bit, but it does make you question why the corporation didn't realize sooner if Randy's deserving of special treatment or not. I'm guessing if you have two McMahons yelling in your ears, you will start going insane and make rash decisions. Hey, it would explain a lot of things. 

Overall Impression:

I don't hate this PPV because it didn't feature title changes. In fact, I don't hate this PPV at all. Let me explain myself. None of the titles were really being built up to change hands, so I don't see that as the problem of NoC. The real problem we have on our hands is how this PPV just feels like it's there. Seriously, why did this need to be here? Outside of the fast count and the Ryback interference, what else did you really get out of this? The answer, not a whole lot. This is a PPV that I wouldn't classify it as 'bad', but mostly what I would consider disappointing. In the last few months, we've seen WWE put some really good PPVs out there and I felt they really went out there for their SummerSlam PPV and put one of the best shows in a really long time. To see THIS being the follow-up to that PPV is very unfulfilling. This PPV doesn't do anything for me and I cannot express how disappointed I am with this PPV. In fact, 'disappointing' is the best way to describe this PPV. It isn't terrible or horrible, but the routine route really doesn't make the replay value for this event stick out. In fact, I almost forgot this was a PPV since this felt nothing like a PPV, thus showing how this event really didn't need to exist at the end of the day. This PPV almost has nothing going for it. In conclusion, I'm still interested in the corporation storyline and I still like what WWE is doing at the moment. I may not like everything they're doing, but I'm satisfied with what I'm seeing on a weekly basis. I still have interest to see what will happen tomorrow night, but this event didn't do the best job to engage you and it just leaves you with an empty feeling. If I had to give this PPV a score between 1-10 and 5 considered average, the best score I can give this event is a 5 out of 10. This is a very average showing at the end of the day and while the matches are good, there's not enough going on to really make this event stick out. I apologize to all of those that got a kick out of Night of Champions. If you like it, there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I'm just expressing my thoughts on the matter. Well, I think it's time to wrap this up. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one. 

WrestlingNerd's Official score for WWE Night of Champions 2013: 5 out of 10