WWE Night of Champions 2009 Review

Match 1: Unified Tag Team Championships - Chris Jericho & The Big Show (c) vs. Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase
Before the match, Chris Jericho comes out and talks trash against his former partner in Edge and bashes him for being prone to injury. He then introduces his new partner, The Big Show. Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase have a look of disbelief on their faces as their chances to make sure Legacy walks out with all the gold have dwindled. The Legacy team did a good job of keeping Big Show out of the match and singling out against Jericho. However, once Show got into the ring, it was a whole new match. Show came in to clean house and once he locked in his Colossal Clutch finisher, game over. Decent match but didn't come strong enough for the debut of Jericho's new teammate. However, after reading Jericho's The Best in the World book, everything made sense. He wanted to reinvigorate Show's career and make him look like a beast again. This match right here was the perfect start.
Winners: Chris Jericho & The Big Show
Rating: *3/4

Match 2: ECW Championship - Tommy Dreamer (c) vs. Christian
This is Tommy Dreamer's "triumphant return" to Philadelphia as the ECW Champion where he defends his gold against Christian. I forgot how hilarious Matt Striker is as he totally exaggerates enormously to everything from the crowd responses to noting that the title has changed numerous times in the city. Regardless, I enjoyed this match. It sucks that they don't make the ECW Championship feel like a bigger deal but they still put on a good match as both guys got in an equal amount of offense. Nobody was in the driver's seat and the cool finish saw Dreamer reverse a Killswitch from Christian into a DDT before Christian reversed once more to hit his Killswitch. Good match, another strong ECW match for Christian's 2009 hot streak. It was pretty evident that Dreamer's title run was simply WWE's way of saying thanks. Good match but nothing to get too excited over.
Winner: Christian
Rating: ***1/4

Match 3: United States Championship - Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Carlito vs. Jack Swagger vs. The Miz vs. Primo vs. MVP
Definitely like how they went for the six-man match instead of a singles match, keeps the show fresh considering there are so many title defenses. The hard part comes in keeping things interesting throughout the match and they did a fine job here. Primo is The Big Show's replacement and he played his role great as he had to also compete against his brother in Carlito. The match was fun but wasn't as chaotic and hectic as you would hoped for. But that isn't to say that this was a bad match because it far and away was not. Good pacing and some cool spots to get the crowd going. Ending came when Carlito hits his Back Stabber finisher on his brother until Kingston lands a Trouble in Paradise right after to retain the title.
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Rating: ***

Match 4: Women's Championship - Michelle McCool (c) vs. Melina
Before the match even starts, Michelle McCool kicks Melina as she does her signature pose on the apron. This is their rematch from last month and things definitely seem more heated this time around. Everyone complains that the Divas need more time in the ring to develop better matches and they definitely got it here. But the match quality really wasn't anything out of the ordinary. With that being said, I am a fan of both these competitors and felt like they could have done more here. McCool gets a second win over Melina and retains the gold.
Winner: Michelle McCool
Rating: *1/2

Match 5: WWE Championship - Randy Orton (c) vs. John Cena vs. Triple H
The rematch everybody wanted to see, right? If I had a dime for every time these guys faced off against each other on PPV. Revisiting this show, it's almost impossible for me to get excited to give this match another watch. Randy Orton continues to play the role as the wild card as John Cena and Triple H continue their beef with one another. While it admittedly was hard to really soak my teeth into the match, it didn't feel like a chore to watch. These three are definitely more than experienced with one another which made the fluidity cleaner and the match itself easier to watch. They also knew when to kick it into second gear. They took the fight out to the announce table outside where they continued back in the ring where both Cena and Triple H locked Orton in submissions at the same time. Orton taps as the referee wraps his arms around his head looking like a complete idiot and losing any credibility in this match. Finally, DiBiase & Rhodes come out for the save as Orton is able to hit an RKO on Cena to retain. That ending was ridiculous. Some may have thought it was clever but that just made the match lose all credibility and made both the referee look stupid and Orton look weak in the process. Orton retains but at a cost.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: ***

Match 6: Divas Championship - Maryse (c) vs. Mickie James
A second Divas match. The Philadelphia crowd is absolutely dead for this one. This was almost like watching a carbon copy of the Divas match earlier. Mickie James tries to get the crowd going by bringing out the hairspray but nobody cares as the referee then takes it away. Pointless to the max. James is able to hit her DDT finisher on Maryse to win the gold as the crowd mildly reacts accordingly.
Winner: Mickie James
Rating: 1/2*

Match 7: Intercontinental Championship - Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler
It's easy to forget how incredible SmackDown was in 2009 since it's always overshadowed from the 2003 version. But this feud was one of 2009's best from the blue brand. The new Dolph Ziggler looking to make a statement against the champ in Rey Mysterio. No complaints for Ziggler here, holding his own against the faster Mysterio and the two had some great exchanges and cool spots. Ziggler looked legit here. And if there was any doubt, Jim Ross is simply the best in the game. Nobody knows how to build a superstar like him. Constantly pointing out how good the younger Ziggler looks against the more experienced Mysterio. Really makes the viewer believe that a title change wouldn't be so surprising. The only real problem I had with this match was the finish. The 619 came out a little out of nowhere and little too fast. In a way, it made sense if you consider that Ziggler's inexperience quickly led him to lose the match. But Ziggler needed a match like this to really get him over and a better finish would have been nicer.
Winner: Rey Mysterio
Rating: ***1/2

Match 8: World Heavyweight Championship - CM Punk (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
Seemingly out of nowhere, this feud came in and swept the wrestling world by storm in 2009. Both guys were coming off an amazing 2008 and here they are in 2009, headlining PPVs. This is Jeff Hardy's rematch from The Bash where CM Punk kicked the referee in the back for the disqualification. This match was just hard for me to get into. As good as Jim Ross was (again) on commentary and doing his best to build the match, I felt like there should have been more. There needed to be more aggression and that wasn't really what we got here. But that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the match. The first few minutes were a bit slow but once it picked up, they brought the pretty quiet crowd back to life. Hardy failed to hit his Swanton Bomb twice while Punk was able to hit a GTS for a close count. Punk then grabbed his title and walked up the stage where Hardy attacked him from behind and finally nailed a Swanton Bomb for the win. Hardy was top dog of the company at the time and his win should have been celebrated better. Plus, the finish of Punk walking out was a bit odd but in the same odd way, it made sense. However, this only leads to a bigger and better rematch.
Winner: Jeff Hardy
Rating: ***1/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
One of WWE's weaker PPV outings. The concept of this PPV has potential but the execution here went south. Some matches were good but nothing too great and nothing really worth going out of the way to watch. The WWE Championship match was the same rehashed match we've seen for a long time and the ending was just ridiculous. The main event had so much more potential but again, the execution fell flat. This was Hardy's big redemption, shouldn't there have been a bigger deal? This show should have been so much better than what we got.
Rating: 6/10