Night Of Surprises

It's no secret that myself, as well as Tha O Show collectively, has been rather harsh on pay-per-view offerings as of late, both in WWE and TNA. And while this has not been without good reason, last night's offering, Night Of Champions, bucked that trend. It wasn't five-star, it's not going to win any pay-per-view of the year polls (on second thought, given the horrible offerings thus far, it might), but it was well worth the 40 dollars anyone threw down for it.

On Saturday afternoon, the thought ran through my head that if WWE wanted to use "SmackDown!" to gain extra ratings, fans, and revenue where they haven't before, they may want to have both champions on that show, rather than having either Batista or Cena bring one title to Raw as many speculated. Man, do I love it when my imagination wanders.

For as much displeasure as I have heaped upon Triple H and Edge lately, it goes without saying that they are miles ahead of John Cena and Batista. Plus, quite frankly, I'm interested to see where they go from here. Two champions on one brand for a prolonged period of time is something they haven't done, so it certainly breaks the trend of predictable and boring. I'm looking forward to Friday nights now. Mission accomplished, E.

Any match featuring John Cena or Batista is destined to have many faults, but to the E's credit, they did a decent job of trying to build anticipation based off of the history involved behind the two matches rather than trying to make people think this was going to be a mat classic.

As for the third world championship, Mark Henry punched a big, black hole through Dan's number 5 reason why the draft was knee by bringing the ECW Championship back to ECW. I'm not the biggest Mark Henry fan around, but I think that on what is essentially a developmental show, he can do just fine as the champion. I don't know if they're going to continue his feud with Big Show now, but regardless, Henry is a fresh face in the main event, so they have a lot of programs at their immediate disposal.

Cody Rhodes turned on Hardcore Holly after the bell rang in his tag team match against Ted DiBiase. Speaking of surprising, while some internet smarks saw it coming, most people probably did not. Still, even if everyone saw it coming from a mile away, I love the idea. Now we sit back and wait for the rest of their stable to join.

John Morrison and The Miz retained the WWE Tag Team Championship. With a weak tag division, I've finally come around on these guys. Sure, they were a hodgepodge when they first teamed up, but they come across as much more teamlike now, and having them hold the gold for a long time gives the E an opportunity to build a tag division around them.

At this time one week ago, people said that Kofi Kingston was athletic and charismatic, but hinted that he may be growing stale. The E's solution? Have him move to "Raw" and win the Intercontinental Championship in surprise fashion. I know this is still a pipe dream at this point, but I hope that Kofi's victory signals that this title will be paid more attention to in the future. I think putting it on a young guy like Kofi will help to get both Kofi and the title itself over.

Matt Hardy defeated Chavo Guerrero. Poor Chavo; it seems like everytime he has a feud for that belt, he couldn't win it if his life depended on it. But then again, Chavo couldn't get over if his life depended on it either. Even when he was the spokesman for hair plugs, nobody in the hair plug industry cheered for him. Time to bring back the golf cart, Mr. White.

I would be remissed if I didn't mention Mickie James' defeat of Katie Lea Burchill for the Women's Championship. Katie Lea has shown great potential in her first few matches in WWE, and I'm hoping that she becomes a permanent fixture, because God knows WWE needs women who can actually work a match. Speaking of women who can work, Natalya didn't have any match for the "Diva's Championship", which I was sure would happen last night. Hmm. Oh, well.

Overall, I have to say this show was damn solid. They kept the bad booking to a minimum, the matches were enjoyable, and Night Of Champions is worth catching the replay of if you didn't see it. Best of all, no family emergencies on the part of the wrestlers.

Tha Results:
*Triple H def. John Cena to retain WWE Championship
*Edge def. Batista to retain World Heavyweight Championship
*Mark Henry def. Big Show and Kane to win ECW Championship
*Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes def. Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes to win World Tag Team Championship
*John Morrison & The Miz def. Finlay & Hornswoggle to retain WWE Tag Team Championship
*Kofi Kingston def. Chris Jericho to win Intercontinental Championship
*Matt Hardy def. Chavo Guerrero to retain United States Championship
*Mickie James def. Katie Lea Burchill to retain Women's Championship

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