Night of Champions 2014 took place in Nashville, Tennessee and featured a total of seven matches. Every championship was up for grabs at the eighth annual PPV, which was highlighted by the WWE World Heavyweight Championship rematch between Brock Lesnar and John Cena.
The Usos battled Gold & Stardust for the WWE Tag Team Titles, the Celtic Warrior Sheamus put his United States Championship on the line against the Swiss Superman Cesaro, the Miz took on Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship and Paige looked to defend her Divas Title against both AJ Lee and Nikki Bella in a Triple Threat match.
But wait, there’s more – in his last match before leaving to go on tour with Fozzy, professional wrestling legend-turned Rockstar Chris Jericho took on the Viper Randy Orton, and Mark Henry put the United States of America on his back in his attempt to crush Rusev – the virtually unbeatable powerhouse who proudly supports Russia.
With an exciting card from top to bottom, did the event live up to the hype? Here are my overall highs, lows and random thoughts of WWE Night of Champions 2014:
BEST MATCH: Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena are valid candidates for the Best Match of the night award, but I have to give the prestigious honor to Sheamus vs. Cesaro, who stole the show and had the crowd on their feet from start to finish. Sheamus and Cesaro have dynamic chemistry with one another and each superstar thrives off the other. The match was hard-hitting, fast paced and more importantly – entertaining. Lesnar vs Cena had the loudest and most consistent crowd response, but Sheamus and Cesaro delivered the best overall action inside the squared circle.
WORST MATCH: Rusev vs. Mark Henry was the Worst Match of the night. The two behemoths worked hard and put forth a fairly decent match, but compared to the rest of the card, it was the weakest. Also, it didn’t help that the Nashville crowd was dead. Perhaps the fans lost their voices after cheering for Dean Ambrose, who made a surprise appearance only minutes before the match. I’ve been very impressed with Rusev and his in-ring work resembles the Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga, but the match as a whole was way too slow and uneventful. There was no real excitement from start to finish and quite honestly, I expected a bit more from both Rusev and Henry.
BEST PROMO: Seth Rollins cut the Best Promo of the night on Roman Reigns, who was at the hospital recovering from emergency hernia surgery. The promo was highly effective and the Nashville crowd was clearly disgruntled with all of the negative things he was saying. I have to say, Rollins has continued to improve his mic skills each and every time he picks up the microphone. The “Architect of the Shield” looked very comfortable when speaking and once his mic skills measure up to his in-ring ability – the man will be unstoppable.
MOST SHOCKING MOMENT: Even though it wasn’t received very well both at the arena and on Twitter, Seth Rollins attacking John Cena and then hitting Brock Lesnar with a Curb Stomp was Most Shocking Moment of the night. You can make an argument that Dean Ambrose returning and decimating Rollins earlier in the night was the Most Shocking Moment, but deep down, I think we all knew the Lunatic Fringe was going to show up. I was absolutely stunned when Rollins hit the Beast with his finisher. Less than two years ago the former Shield member was in NXT trying to make it into the big leagues, now he’s beating down John Cena and Brock Lesnar. The dude must be ecstatic.
