WWE Night of Champions 2012 PreviewBy Chris Blackwood| September 16, 2012 WWE Blogs Well hello!! It’s been a while, did you miss me? Sorry I haven’t been around recently to provide you with 5 minutes of distraction while you wait for the PPV to start, but y’know, life happens and stuff. Hopefully that’s all rectified now, so I can get back to my monthly musings on what’s going down with WWE PPVs. Night of Champions baby!! One of the PPVs I dig, mainly because it guarantees that the often forgotten mid card titles actually get a decent defence on a PPV. We’ve got some stuff to cover this time round, including lady love looks in the Divas title match, Antonio Cesaro FINALLY getting rid of his shoddy version of “Chelsea Dagger”, Dolph still being generally awesome, me finally softening to Sheamus, and why I’m a sucker for a “Paul Heyman guy”. So without further ado, let’s get on and take a look, shall we? Pre-Show Battle Royal (Winner faces Antonio Cesaro for the US Title) So I’ve just realised I don’t even know who’s going to be entered into the Battle Royale for a shot at Cesaro, but you know what? I don’t even think it matters, because whoever it is isn’t going to beat Antonio. There you go, first prediction right off the bat. You’d have to assume Cesaro’s opponent would be someone like Santino maybe? There’s an outside chance you might get Tyson Kidd or Christian, somebody like that possibly? Regardless of whoever it is there’s no way I can see them taking the belt off Antonio. He’s just been given super smooth new music and he’s shaping up to be a great champion, taking the title off him now would be silly. In fact, do you know what I’d do for Cesaro? I’d remove the US Title and furnish him with a brand spanking new European Title. Look at his gimmick, changing the US Title into the European Title would be a hell of an angle to invest in Cesaro, but if anyone’s gonna be able to pull it off, then you’ve got to believe it’s Cesaro? There you go, Antonio Cesaro for European Champion. You heard it here first folks! Divas Championship Match Layla © vs Kaitlyn Layla and Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn and Layla. I’m just gonna sit here for a moment and think about that…and now I’m gonna go take a cold shower. I’ll be back in a bit… Whew, that’s better. Right, where was I? Oh yeah, Kaitlyn and Layla, and their lovely, lovely, lovely sultry looks at each other. Regardless of who leaves this match as Divas Champion, we’re all winners here as far as I’m concerned. I think I need to go take another shower… In all seriousness though, Kaitlyn’s been putting in solid work since she won NXT to get to where she’s at right now, and I couldn’t be happier for her. I totally wouldn’t be adverse to her winning the title tonight. In fact, I want her to win tonight, because that means we get another glorious month of watching her and Layla giving each other the “sex eye”. Yes please. The one to watch in this match though is Eve. I’m fully expecting her to put in an appearance to change the course of this match. She’s been playing the disingenuous babyface so well, that there is no way that she isn’t getting involved in this match somehow. Kaitlyn, Layla, AND Eve? Great googly moogly. Okay, let’s stop me thinking about this and get straight to some predictions, eh? Who I want to win: Kaitlyn. Why not? She may as well get a chance to run with the title. Who I think will win: Hmm. I could see this quite easily ending as a no contest or something along those lines after Eve “accidentally” gets involved in the match. I know Eve’s getting involved somehow, but I don’t know who’s gonna get the win because of that? WWE Tag Team Championship Match Kofi Kingston & R-Truth © vs. Team Friendship (Daniel Bryan & Kane) Is it me, or is Kane quite possibly the greatest comedy worker in WWE history. Like, you don’t realise it until you actually stop to think back over all the awesome skit work he’s ever done. Then they cap it all with this Anger Management stuff, which is one of the best Tag Team creation angles that I remember. But then that also has to be attributed somewhat to Daniel Bryan too. Ol’ Goatface has been consistently excellent in and out of the ring ever since WrestleMania (well, waaay before that actually), and from the audience reaction seems to be one of the most massively over stars on the roster at the minute. I love me some “odd couple” tag teams, and this is easily the best combo since the whole MattVP angle on Smackdown a few years ago. I’m honestly expecting Kane and Bryan to become THE babyface tag team within the next couple of months, and y’know what? It’s gonna be awesome. I’m already massively happy that Tag Teams are getting a fair amount of time now, and most importantly they are setting them all up to look like threats to the title. I may have had to wait a whole 12 months longer than I expected, but finally the promise of an improved tag team division seems to be coming off! We’ve got the PTP (why, oh why didn’t I trademark that name?), the Usos, Primo & Epico, Truth & Kofi, Hunico & Carmacho, Gabriel & Kidd, The Ascension, and now Team Friendship (and yes, I am going to call them that from now on), that’s a pretty badass little base for a Tag Division. Throw in another team or two and we’re all set. What’s Zack Ryder and Trent Baretta up to these days? Anyways, let’s make some predictions… Who I want to win: Team Friendship. Kofi and Truth have held the Tag Titles for a while, so I think it’s time for someone else to get a crack with the titles. Who I think will win: Team Friendship. I’m telling you, just listening to the crowd reaction from Raw and Smackdown this week, the fans are well behind Kane and D-Bry. They’re the next HUGE babyface team, I promise you. Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler Now this is a match I’m veeeeeery interested in. As far as I’m concerned this match right here needs to be where WWE pull the trigger on Dolph Ziggler. They’ve built this match around Dolph wanting to prove he’s better than Orton, and that’s exactly what needs to happen. None of that business that WWE have seemed so insistent on in the last few years of jobbing out their briefcase holder. To me it is absolutely vital that Ziggler comes out of this looking like a million bucks, and I don’t see any reason why that shouldn’t happen. We all know that Orton isn’t adverse to putting people over strong, just look at how he sold Mark Henry’s offence during their title switch. Randy Orton had no problem with getting essentially decimated by Henry to put the new champion over strong, so I don’t think he’s going to have any problem with putting over Dolph as the young, hungry guy looking to burst into the main event scene. Of course there is one more option here, and that’s Ziggler dominating the match, before underestimating Orton and eating an RKO out of nowhere. Now I don’t have a problem with that, but it would have to be with a very specific set of circumstances to follow it. I would demand that Ziggler cashed in later on in the night and stole the World Heavyweight title away, only for Orton to become the new number one contender shortly after. From there Dolph would win their match up, finally proving that not only is he the WHC, but he’s also better than Randy Orton. Who I want to win: Dolph. In fact, I’d absolutely love Dolph to win this match, then cash in successfully later in the show. But then they may do something silly like have Seamus/Del Rio open the show, so that could completely nix any cash in hopes. Who I think will win: Hmmm…Dolph. I think WWE are looking to build a little more momentum behind him, and getting a big win over Orton will help his credibility a lot. Fatal Four Way Match for the Intercontinental Championship The Miz © vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara vs. Cody Rhodes Woooo!! Cody’s going “mask crazy” again! I’m sold on that immediately. What pleases me more is that Cody seemed to be losing his way just a little after dropping his IC Title to Christian. It’s been good to see him returning to form some in the last couple of weeks, and I’m loving his current obsession with removing the masks of Mysterio and Sin Cara. And how about Sin Cara getting a shot at a title? Although it appears the most likely thing to happen at the moment would be him and Mysterio teaming up for the foreseeable future (there’s ANOTHER tag team for the division!), so I wouldn’t have thought either Rey or Cara would be likely to walk out of this one as the winner. It’s not completely outside the realms of possibility, but I’d highly doubt it. That leaves us with Miz and Rhodes as our potential IC Title holders, and out of the pair of them I’d really love to see Rhodes win it back. I think Rhodes was awesome as IC Champ, whereas The Miz hasn’t been anywhere near as “awesome” as he’d like you think he is. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something just hasn’t clicked for The Miz during this title reign. The weirdest thing is I can’t think of anything that could be done to make Miz more credible as champion. He could beat all kinds of opponents and I think it’d still be pretty hard to make me give more than a “meh” about him? It’s not like I hate him either, I just have a total feeling of nothingness as far as he’s concerned. I think it’s time for someone else to have the belt. Who I want to win: Cody Rhodes. Let him have his baby back. Who I think will win: Cody again I reckon. He’s seems to have rediscovered a bit of his mojo, I think they do a lot worse than to give Rhodes another run. World Heavyweight Championship Match Sheamus © vs. Alberto Del Rio So in the time since I last wrote one of these I’ve warmed quite a lot to Sheamus, fella. Even with the ridiculousness that was the ending of his Summerslam match, Sheamus has given me more than a couple of laugh out loud moments lately. I’m a particular fan of the whole deposition skit from Monday’s Raw. “If you’re Lipschitz…then what does you’re a*se do?”. Brilliant. So yeah, I like the fella, and I think he’s really starting to come into his own as champion. The guy’s been a pretty solid workhorse, and I’d be perfectly happy with seeing Sheamus continue as WHC for at least a couple more months. If anything, it’d be kind of cool to see Del Rio and Otunga have to pull out even more dirty tactics to try and get him Sheamus next time. This whole “banning the Brogue Kick” angle has been played out pretty well so far, I just hope they don’t cap it by having one of those stupid moments where Sheamus loses the title because he’s too dumb to be able to stop himself Brogue Kicking someone in the face. I hate when that happens. How hard is it to not use a move on someone? Who I want to win: Sheamus. Like I said, the champ seems to be hitting his stride, and a lengthy reign will do him a world of good. Who I think will win: Sheamus. With a Cloverleaf. What’s the point in putting it over as his new move so hard in the last few weeks if he’s not gonna use it? And don’t be surprised if you hear Ziggler’s music kick in… WWE Championship Match CM Punk © vs. John Cena “A Paul Heyman Guy”. 4 words that are music to my ears. Finally we’re back to where Punk started everything with the Pipe Bomb promo. In fact, I haven’t written one of these since Punk dropped the Rock like a bad habit, so I’ll state this loud and clear. Punk didn’t turn heel, PUNK TURNED PUNK. And I couldn’t be more excited. This is the man I expected to see after the Pipebomb promo, and that glorious, glorious evening in Chicago. WWE tried to turn CM Punk into their interpretation of what a babyface should be, and it…well, it kind worked with the kids, whereas the rest of us (and most likely Punk himself) sat around for the best part of a year just watching it happen while being all “WTF?” about it. Then he dropped the Rock, and BAMN! we’re back in business. Go back and watch the infamous Punk promo from last year, it’s all in there, the hatred of “Dwayne”, the fact that Punk is “A Paul Heyman guy”, that he hates the direction the company is taking, his demands of respect for not only himself, but the WWE Championship. We’re getting back to where Punk got reeeeeaaally interesting, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. As for the match itself, I’m definitely pulling for Punk to walk out as champion. He’s got Heyman in his corner now, so you know Paul E. has to have some kind of plan in mind for how Cena is to be dealt with. Plus it’s got to tell you something when Cena is walking into his supposed “hometown” and is most likely going to get booed. I don’t want another Cena title reign, and I can’t see any conceivable reason why he needs another title reign? I know it’s been looking as if the plan has been for Punk for drop the title to Cena, who’ll then most likely drop to Rock at the Rumble, who’ll hopefully go on to face Punk at Mania, but forget that. Punk’s angle with Heyman has got me really interested again, and could be the shot in the arm his title reign needs. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if Punk dropped the belt at Survivor Series or something, so that the original plan could still go ahead, just not tonight. Please. Who I want to win: CM Punk. Like you even had to ask. Who I think will win: I’m hoping management has some faith in Punk, and let him play off the interest generated by him aligning with Heyman. I know my interest in tonight’s match has increased since Paul E’s involvement, and I doubt I’m the only one. So there you go. There’s my preview and predictions for tonight’s big event. Got your own thoughts on what’s going to go down tonight? Then don’t keep them to yourself, there’s a big old comment box waiting for you to chip in with your own thoughts. See you all next time!
