So...new little segment that may become a monthly, the highs and lows of Night of Champions based SOLELY on how I'm reading the match results. Please note that some things could fall in as a "high" and a "low" based on how it was booked, or what I see happening coming out of it.
Let's begin:
Highs:
Dolph Ziggler retains IC Title: Ziggler is red hot right now and I agree with the folks who think we may be looking at the next Curt Hennig. The guy is a great heel and has worked his ass off through terrible gimmicks and the company seemingly not giving a damn to get here. Plus he's an IC Champ who actually CARES about being IC Champ, been awhile since we've had one of those. Kofi is a tremendous talent but I think there's more upside in Ziggler at present so keeping the belt here is a good call.
Hart Dynasty drop tag titles: Before you all start to crucify me think about the logic I'm employing here:
1. The Dynasty was basically just sitting on those belts, doing nothing.
2. This clears the way to rebuild the division. The smart money on any title situation has always been that strong heel champions draw better because the audience pays to see them get knocked off and the babyface gets their happy ending. Babyfaces don't tend to draw as well because after awhile the "happy ending" euphoria wears off and we're in a "cool off" period. Granted this logic is usually used on top, but with the tag division such a shambles, it's the way to go here. Drew and Cody are pretty charismatic heels, so they might be able to pull this one off.
Kane retains: Props to WWE for doing the obvious and correct thing here and forestalling giving Taker the big come back win. They've been doing a good job playing against type with Taker here as this is a classic example of what I was talking about with the tag belts: Heel champion, you confound and dissemble the babyface and then utlimately he gets his victory. I'd like WWE to hold off on giving Taker the belt until at least Hell In A Cell, or maybe Survivor Series. I think the more logical idea is the Cell since that's really where the issue started as Kane debuted to cost Taker the first Cell match. Then Kane and Taker can rematch at SS and they can put over it's Taker's 20th anniversary with the company and he can have a "still going strong" moment.
Daniel Bryan is US Champ: Some people thought it was too early. I disagree. Miz has been a do nothing champ, and this feud has really had months of build, and Bryan came in hot so why not give him a belt that doesn't really matter and let him rebuild it into something while building himself along the way? This also frees up Miz to concentrate on getting himself ready to challenge for the big belt at some point soon.
Barrett pins Cena: I like that WWE not only didn't have Cena beat the crap out of everybody, but they let the young guy get the pin on him. I also like that Barrett went fairly deep into the bout as well. In all honesty, Nexus exists for Barrett at this point as he's the only guy really being pushed and the only guy I really see having much of a long term future when it breaks up. Now maybe next month we can get a Barrett vs. Cena one on one with a similar result? You can't build these guys WWE without some wins that prove they can hang.
Orton wins: Orton is hot right now, the fans like him, and as long as he can stay healthy, why not try him on top as a babyface and see where it leads? Some would argue they should have waited till Mania because that might be a bit more like solidyfing him as "the man". But here's the thing, he's not "the man" like it or not, John Cena is "the man". Orton however can definitely be a strong number 2, or a number 1 for our demographic potentially. It's an interesting thought and it might actually behoove WWE to look into switching Orton to SD! at some point and experimenting with the idea of RAW as the "kids brand" and SD! as something more for adult wrestling fans...oh what the hell am I saying? That's pretty much what they've been doing. So, again, might want to look into switching Orton at some point.
Michelle wins, LayCool stays together: I'm so glad WWE resisted the split here. LayCool has mucho mileage left as a heel act and with the belts unified it opens up new opportunities to wait until Beth Phoenix gets back. In the meantime, the mean girls can continue to screw with "Lady Wahwah" and keep me smiling on a weekly basis.
Lows:
Chris Jericho is done: Last scheduled appearance kids. Chris Jericho appears to be done for the foreseeable and any way you slice it that's bad news for WWE fans. If you don't know why that is, either you need to watch more WWE, or you need to go kill yourself.
Cody and Drew win the tag belts: No offense to those two personally but I'm sick of the tag team titles on two guys stuck together. What happened to TEAMS? This is why this division is shit. There's no thought in it. The champs got eliminated in like a minute by a legit team they've feuded with. Well, other then the whole getting beat in like a minute, I'm good. But then that team beats one comedy team, gets eliminated by two guys who I believe never teamed together until tonight, and then we get two guys that have only had like one match together as a team. This is NOT how we build goddamn tag team champions!!! I'll grant you, these kinds of teams can be entertaining with the right pairings (the aborted Edge/Jericho, JeriShow, ShowMiz) but that should be an aberration, not the standard. Also they get some points for the fact that Rhodes and McIntyre have built the alliance over a couple weeks and did get a non-title win on Thursday. So certainly it could be worse. There's great potential in The Chosen Ones (or maybe they'll be the Dashing Ones?) but I fear that once more WWE will simply use this to try and build them more as singles and when they drop the belts they'll have no further interest in teaming, it's so insanely myopic on their part as their are so many great duos from within and outside WWE that made money, sold merch, and were goddamn draws. Isn't that what should be the brass ring here? FUCK!!
Punk loses to Show: What the fucking fuck is this fucking shit? No, I'm not going to sit here and talk about how they buried Punk, or they destroyed Punk, or blah blah. You know why? Because it'd be bullshit. It'd be untrue. Punk is teflon, Punk has hit that Jericho plateau where it just doesn't matter what you do to him. He did that...he got there.
WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU MORONS NOT EXPLOITING THAT TO THE FULLEST?!
A feud with fucking Big Show? Big Show? Babyface Big Show? Who's practically a giant comedy act when he's a babyface. They dismantled the SES (thanks in part to Serena Dweeb...thanks bitch, thanks a lot), and Show has basically just destroyed Punk. So of course we decide that Vince has to make him join the metaphorical "kiss my ass" club by losing in his home town because "haha buddy! I'm Vince McMahon and I can do things like that". I just hope that irregardless Punk is moving on to something else after this because this program has really in the end done nothing for anybody involved. Make it stop, please please make it stop.
