WWE Night Of Champions Predictions
September 20, 2015
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
It’s time for another edition of Night Of Champions, the first PPV for the fall/winter slate of programming for WWE. Last year, this show was a pretty decent offering. Tonight’s show just doesn’t have me excited. I don’t know why, but the build for this show just doesn’t have me feeling particularly jazzed up. I think it’ll wind up being pretty good, but at the moment I’m not tripping over myself with excitement.
WWE Night of Champions Kickoff Show
Neville and The Lucha Dragons vs. Stardust and The Ascension
There’s not much to this match other than it will probably be pretty decent if it gets some time on the kickoff show. I do like the pairing of Stardust with The Ascension. The Ascension were going nowhere in a hurry on the roster, so this should give their act a breath of fresh air.
Prediction: Stardust and The Ascension
Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and TBA vs. The Wyatt Family
This match definitely has some buzz heading into it. Many are wondering who the mystery partner will be for Reigns and Ambrose. I don’t know why, but a rumor is flying around that it is Kane, but that just doesn’t make any sense to me. Kane was taken out by Brock Lesnar, who smashed the steel steps off his ankle. After that, Seth Rollins attacked him for good measure. At no point was The Wyatt Family involved in that, so why would Kane come back to help two faces against them? There’s also talk of Baron Corbin or Samoa Joe, but we’ll see. Samoa Joe would definitely make an impact. I’m not sure Baron Corbin would. Corbin is a guy that should be introduced to the audience with some video packages. If he’s introduced as the mystery partner and doesn’t get a reaction, that’s not good. First impressions are lasting impressions. I’m hoping it’s someone like Chris Jericho or Daniel Bryan. Both would get a huge pop and have history with The Wyatt Family, so it would make sense. We’ll see.
Another interesting thing about this match is Braun Strowman. Do they really want him being on a losing team in his first PPV match? I don’t think Strowman has looked all that impressive in his limited time on the roster thus far. His debut match against Ambrose was quite underwhelming and didn’t have a finish. He’s also looked awkward in the ring at times. A loss in his first PPV match would really hurt the mystique they’re attempting to create around him. Also, Wyatt and Harper lost to Reigns and Ambrose at SummerSlam. Are they really going to go down again? I have to think the answer is no. I’d love to see this culminate in a tornado tag Hell in a Cell match next month, so I’ll give it to The Wyatt Family here, no matter who the mystery partner is.
Prediction: The Wyatt Family
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev
This rivalry has been so underwhelming. The storyline has been really, really bad and the pairings of Ziggler/Lana and Rusev/Summer Rae have been terrible with forced acting and little to no chemistry. It’s really seen all four of the participants lowered down a few levels. Maybe that’s not fair. Summer Rae was never really a premiere player to begin with. Looking at Rusev, you have to shake your head. He came into the year having never been pinned. He was the last man eliminated from the Royal Rumble and faced John Cena at WrestleMania. Now look at him. Nothing against Cesaro, but he pinned Rusev on Monday. Rusev is not even close to where he was earlier in the year. He’s just another on a long list of talent whose legs have been cut out from under them. Rusev joins the endless list of .500 superstars that had a chance to be something special only for WWE to squander them. Expect some more squandering tonight.
Prediction: Dolph Ziggler
WWE Divas Championship Match
Charlotte vs. Nikki Bella (c)
For those that were furious over Nikki Bella leaving RAW with the Divas Championship this past Monday and surpassing AJ Lee’s record for longest reigning champion, tonight should make you happy. The keyword is “should.” For all intents and purposes, that finish should set up Charlotte beating Nikki tonight. After all, the odds are stacked against the champion with the title being allowed to change hands via disqualification. There’s also the possibility that Paige will interfere to cost Charlotte the match. Paige has been losing a lot lately while Charlotte has been a lot more successful. There could be something to that. If Paige does interfere, maybe she’ll attack Nikki so she retains by DQ. Then they could break PCB apart tomorrow night. Who knows? That’s just an alternate angle they could take. I still think Charlotte has a great chance to win this one.
Prediction: Charlotte
WWE Tag Team Championships Match
The Dudley Boyz vs. The New Day (c’s)
This match presents an interesting conundrum. The Dudley Boyz made their surprise return to WWE the night after SummerSlam to a thunderous reception. Almost immediately they’re getting a shot at the titles. However, they’re facing The New Day, who just won the titles back at SummerSlam and have been by far the most entertaining act on WWE television over the last month. What do they do? Do they go with the legends coming back or do they stay with the hot hand? I think WWE made a big mistake by putting the titles on The Prime Time Players when The New Day was just beginning to pick up steam. They can’t make that same mistake again, but they can’t have The Dudley Boyz lose. I think The Dudley’s will wind up winning by disqualification.
Prediction: The Dudley Boyz
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Kevin Owens vs. Ryback (c)
Even though the promo segment that led to this match on RAW was atrocious, this should wind up being a pretty good match. Owens, despite what he claims, has been barely keeping his head above water since losing two straight to John Cena over the summer. The big buzz that surrounded him coming up has completely dissipated with walk out losses, not a lot of promo time, and fat jokes. Tonight could be a second chance for him to put himself back on the map. Owens with the Intercontinental Championship could do two things: get him back the steam he lost over the summer and bring back some prestige to the championship, which they were attempting to do earlier this year before Daniel Bryan got injured. Owens could put on some great title defenses against a lot of the guys on the mid-card level and really make a name for himself. Ryback as the champion has been a failure. It’s time to move on.
Prediction: Kevin Owens
WWE United States Championship Match
John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (c)
Tonight is Seth Rollins’ night. This will probably be the match that kicks off the show. These two had a phenomenal match at SummerSlam until the Jon Stewart run in, and I expect them to have another tremendous match tonight. Rollins with two titles will be hard to maintain. He can’t have two PPV matches every month. We saw what happened a few weeks back when they had him compete twice on RAW – it really killed the rating and overexposed him. It may be his first title defense, but I think it’s time for them to get the title off Rollins already. Sting could thwart Rollins attempting to cheat to beat Cena and cost him the match that way to build up steam for the main event. If Rollins is losing a title tonight, this is the one he should lose.
Prediction: John Cena
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sting vs. Seth Rollins (c)
As for this match, this shows how much WWE thinks of Rollins: they’re putting him in there with a guy well north of 5-0 and expecting him to get Sting through the main event. That’s a big vote of confidence in him. He’ll be doing this while already having competed once already. I don’t know how they’ll do this, but I expect it will be a more than passable match. I don’t think they can do what they did with Sting at WrestleMania and do a bunch of run ins to hide whatever stamina issues he may have. I can’t see Sting winning this match and taking the title, but I also can’t see him being 2-2 in WWE. At the moment he’s 2-1 with the two wins from this past Monday’s RAW. Then again, almost everyone is .500 in WWE. Maybe they can have Sting win and then have Sheamus cash in, but that would kill Rollins. I’ve got to go with Rollins here.
Prediction: Seth Rollins
For SummerSlam, I went a sparkling 7-2 on my predictions. The Rusev/Ziggler match was a double count-out, so that doesn’t count. I predicted Lesnar to win the main event and while he did technically win, he didn’t get the official decision. Still, it really helped my record for the year!
Predictions Record for 2015: 38-25 (.603)
While my 2015 record is too close to .500 for my liking, my all-time predictions record is pretty darn good.
All-time Predictions Record: 77-39 (.664)
Well, those are my predictions for the show. Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know!
E-Mail – MikeyT817@gmail.com
Twitter – @MikeTedescoWV
Check back on Wrestleview.com starting at 8 PM EST for a tremendous live recap of the show provided by our Editor in Chief, the great Adam Martin.
Thanks for reading and enjoy WWE Night Of Champions!