Photo courtesy of WWE.com
It wasn't long ago that WWE's pay-per-views had somewhat
arbitrary names such as Vengeance, Backlash, Bad Blood, Unforgiven and
so many others. Now, almost all of them are calculated and have some
sort of meaning behind them. One such pay-per-view that has worked to
this point is Night of Champions.
The premise behind Night of Champions is that every title must be defended on that one night, and that is something that fans love to see. It used to be commonplace for each and every championship to be contested at every pay-per-view, but that is no longer the case, so Night of Champions is special in that regard.
There is no doubt that there have been and continue to be some
lame themed pay-per-views, but Night of Champions is a great concept.
Titles have become devalued over the past several years, and with the
exception of the WWE Championship, it doesn't seem like the writers put
much emphasis on them.Night of Champions is the one event on
the calendar that makes every championship feel important, though, and I
wish that feeling persisted throughout the year. Titles like the
Intercontinental Championship and United States Championship used to
essentially be used as a bridge from the mid-card to the main event, but
now it's almost as if they're useless props.
At Night of Champions, however, there are usually some compelling storylines surrounding those mid-card belts and the fans are given a reason to care about them. Even the Tag Team Championships have been receiving some build as of late, as several teams have been vying for Kofi Kingston and R-Truth's straps on SmackDown.
Many themed pay-per-views such as Hell in a Cell and TLC can be restrictive since they limit certain matches from taking place throughout the remainder of the year. Night of Champions presents an ideal that the vast majority of fans would like to see all the time, though, and that makes for an excellent event.
In fact, the one drawback of Night of Champions is that it even needs to have its own pay-per-view. Night of Champions wouldn't have even made sense as a pay-per-view a decade ago, since every title was always defended. As much as I enjoy Night of Champions as an event, I wish it wasn't necessary to have one night headlined by titles when that should always be the case.
Either way, Night of Champions is one of the year's better
auxiliary pay-per-views and perhaps the best themed event overall. Even
the stage is fantastic, as the WWE rolls out the red carpet down the
ramp in order to give Night of Champions a big-time feel that few other
shows throughout the year possess.I'm generally not a big fan
of pay-per-views that have the name of a match type in them with the
exception of Royal Rumble, but Night of Champions is different.
Championships used to be the most important things in wrestling, as
everyone who had one wanted to keep it and everyone who didn't wanted
one of their own.
There isn't nearly enough importance placed on winning titles in wrestling today, but Night of Champions reminds us that putting championships first isn't all that difficult to do. Every title in WWE has a rich and important history, and for at least one night we're reminded of that.
Night of Champions is never going to reach the level of WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam or Survivor Series in terms of popularity, but it's a great event that does justice to the concept of themed pay-per-views.
The premise behind Night of Champions is that every title must be defended on that one night, and that is something that fans love to see. It used to be commonplace for each and every championship to be contested at every pay-per-view, but that is no longer the case, so Night of Champions is special in that regard.
At Night of Champions, however, there are usually some compelling storylines surrounding those mid-card belts and the fans are given a reason to care about them. Even the Tag Team Championships have been receiving some build as of late, as several teams have been vying for Kofi Kingston and R-Truth's straps on SmackDown.
Many themed pay-per-views such as Hell in a Cell and TLC can be restrictive since they limit certain matches from taking place throughout the remainder of the year. Night of Champions presents an ideal that the vast majority of fans would like to see all the time, though, and that makes for an excellent event.
In fact, the one drawback of Night of Champions is that it even needs to have its own pay-per-view. Night of Champions wouldn't have even made sense as a pay-per-view a decade ago, since every title was always defended. As much as I enjoy Night of Champions as an event, I wish it wasn't necessary to have one night headlined by titles when that should always be the case.
Do you consider Night of Champions to be one of WWE's best themed pay-per-views?
There isn't nearly enough importance placed on winning titles in wrestling today, but Night of Champions reminds us that putting championships first isn't all that difficult to do. Every title in WWE has a rich and important history, and for at least one night we're reminded of that.
Night of Champions is never going to reach the level of WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam or Survivor Series in terms of popularity, but it's a great event that does justice to the concept of themed pay-per-views.
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