WWE Night of Champions 2014 Review

After getting demolished by Brock Lesnar at Summerslam, John Cena tries to rebound and avenge his loss by recapturing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Match 1: WWE Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. Gold and Stardust
Brothers against brothers is the first match of the night, pretty strange to see Goldust and Cody Rhodes as heels here... sorry, Stardust. However, around this time, the tag division was really starting to pick up and the two teams here really found their chemistry against each other. Lots of action to start the show and the crowd was hyped for all of it, especially The Usos. However, Stardust is able to pin one of The Usos after a failed splash attempt as the long reign of The Usos finally came to its end. Solid match to start the show and very cool to see the Rhodes brothers to become champs in 2014.
Winners: Gold and Stardust
Rating: ***

Match 2: WWE United States Championship - Sheamus (c) vs. Cesaro
I really can't recall if I've seen this match before or if I've just seen them wrestle against each other about a million times before. Probably the latter. Even still, this was probably the best match I have seen from these two as their chemistry just clicked so brilliantly here. Cesaro was working as a heel and would not let up on a bigger Sheamus. This was as physical as you could want from a professional wrestling match, they threw fists, elbows, knees, everything... and they all looked brutal. The second half of the match had the crowd on their toes with the two exchanging blows left and right before Sheamus was able to catch Cesaro with a Brogue Kick to seal the victory in a match that could seriously be the match of the night.
Winner: Sheamus
Rating: ***3/4

Match 3: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. The Miz
As much as I love them, very odd to have Florida Georgia Line come out to help do commentary for this match despite them trying to build up their appearance at Tribute to the Troops later in the year. Kind of random to have them there, though. With them being on commentary, the commentators pretty much overlooked the entire match and even made light of the match itself. Can we all take a minute to remember how good Damien Mizdow was? He made that gimmick look like a million bucks. Dolph Ziggler had his own stunt double as well in R-Ziggler, good stuff. Like the last match, the two have great chemistry with each other as the match worked well here with Florida Georgia Line helping out Ziggler in the process. Even still, a handful of tights was enough for The Miz to roll up Ziggler and steal the win and win back the Intercontinental Championship. Solid match here but it becomes more and more difficult to care about this championship when the guys on commentary don't even care.
Winner: The Miz
Rating: ***

Match 4: Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns
With Roman Reigns being out of commission due to an emergency surgery, Seth Rollins was left without an opponent. Rollins still comes out and calls him out for not being man enough to show up as he forces a referee to start the match without him being in the arena. The referee counts out Reigns and welp, Rollins is the winner via forfeit. Afterwards, Rollins issues an open challenge to which Dean Ambrose then appears and beats the crap out of Rollins. However, The Authority then come out to break up the action. Great segment here that substitutes for Reigns missing the show, the crowd ate up Ambrose coming back.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Rating: n/a

Match 5: Mark Henry vs. Rusev
Trying to defend the honor of America, Mark Henry takes on Rusev in a match with pride and bragging rights on the line. Before the match, Lillian Garcia sings the national anthem before Rusev made his way down to the ring, nice touch. As obvious as it was that Rusev was going to go over, they worked a good back and forth contest with Rusev being too much for Henry who was still able to his his World's Strongest Slam move. However, Rusev locked Henry in his Accolade submission as Henry was forced to tap after Rusev had worked much of the match focusing on the back of Henry.
Winner: Rusev
Rating: **

Match 6: Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton
I'm convinced that there is no bigger discrepancy in the WWE with Randy Orton as a babyface and as a heel, he works so much better as a heel that it's pretty ridiculous. Fun fact of the day, the two faced off in 2007 for the WWE Championship where JBL interfered in the match. Seven years later, the two face off again and JBL is sitting at the table doing commentary for it. Funny how things work. Nothing new needs to be said here, two amazing veterans at the top of their game painting another piece of art. They did such a great job of revving up the match into a higher gear as the match progressed. They really did have the crowd at the tip of their fingers as they fell for every reversal and second of drama they created. Chris Jericho would end up falling for a RKO after he jumped off the top rope as Orton would then pose in front of an unconscious Jericho before pinning him. Did I say Orton works better as a heel? Because he is miles better as a heel and that just proved it. Another solid match on the card.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: ***1/2

Match 7: WWE Divas Championship - Paige (c) vs. AJ Lee vs. Nikki Bella
After the last match, there needed to be a bridge between that and the main event. Alas, the Divas Championship is on the line in a triple threat match. Basic Divas match here with the crowd really not caring much for the action in the ring despite their efforts. AJ Lee is able to lock Paige in her Black Widow to win her third championship. Decent for what it was but nothing more. Ready for the main event.
Winner: AJ Lee
Rating: *1/2

Match 8: WWE World Heavyweight Championship - Brock Lesnar (c) vs. John Cena
Brock Lesnar steamrolled through John Cena at Summerslam en route to becoming the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. That match consisted of Lesnar suplexing the hell out of Cena and making it look like Cena's worst loss of his career. Like that much, this was similar in Lesnar dominating Cena for the most part but Cena was able to get some more offense in this time around. Surprising how this match never main evented a WrestleMania because the crowd was absolutely buzzing for this one. Cena was able to lock Lesnar in an STF and possibly had Lesnar ready to tap until Seth Rollins appeared and hit Cena in the back with his Money in the Bank briefcase along with hitting Lesnar with a Curb Stomp. A disqualification is called before Rollins attempts to cash in his contract but Cena attacked Rollins from behind and stopped that. The last scene, however, is Lesnar standing tall alone in the ring as he gives Cena an F-5 for his troubles. As much as people hate on disqualification endings in main event matches, this certainly worked. Cena doesn't get a big loss for two PPVs in a row, Lesnar still looks dominant, and Rollins remains the wild card in all of this and gets to feud with Cena while Lesnar is out of television. As for the match, it was one of Lesnar's weaker ones but again, it served its purpose and kept the crowd entertained.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: **3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
While nothing in the show completely blew me away, this was still a solid show that I think was nicely booked from the start to the finish. The main concern I have with some of these PPVs is how recycled they feel. It's almost as if I have seen all of these matches on another PPV or on an edition of Raw before.
Rating: 7.75/10