Night of Champions (2013)

Night of Champions (2013)

Promotional poster featuring Kofi Kingston holding the Intercontinental Championship
Theme
song(s)		 "Night of Gold" by CFO$[1]
"Big Epic Night" by Jim Johnston[2]
Information
Promotion WWE
Sponsor O'Reilly Automotive
Date September 15, 2013
Attendance 10,500[3]
Venue Joe Louis Arena
City Detroit, Michigan
Pay-per-view chronology

SummerSlam (2013) Night of Champions (2013) Battleground (2013)
Night of Champions chronology

Night of Champions (2012) Night of Champions (2013) Night of Champions (2014)

Night of Champions (2013) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. This year's event took place on September 15, 2013 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It was the seventh annual Night of Champions event, and the eighth pay-per-view in the 2013 lineup. The theme of this PPV was that every championship in WWE was defended.

The event received 175,000 buys, which is down from last year's event of 189,000.[4]

Background

Night of Champions featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[5][6]

Randy Orton, the WWE Champion faced Daniel Bryan.

Following his win over John Cena at SummerSlam, Daniel Bryan lost the WWE Championship when special guest referee and chief operating officer Triple H attacked Bryan, allowing Randy Orton to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the championship. Triple H and the McMahons stated it was "best for business" because Bryan did not "fit the mold" to be WWE Champion. Naming Orton the new face of WWE, they also formed an alliance with The Shield. Leading up to Night of Champions, Bryan was forced to compete in several challenging matches, including a steel cage match with Wade Barrett, a gauntlet match against the three members of The Shield, and a match with Big Show. After defeating Dean Ambrose on the September 9 episode of Raw, Bryan was again assaulted by the rest of The Shield and Orton.

On August 5, Rob Van Dam defeated World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio in a non-title match after Ricardo Rodriguez's interference backfired. After the match, Del Rio attacked Rodriguez for his actions. Two weeks later, Rodriguez returned to inform Del Rio that he was now representing Van Dam. Van Dam continued to attack Del Rio, both on Raw and SmackDown, and on the August 26 episode of Raw, Van Dam won a non-title match over Del Rio due to Rodriguez's help. On September 6, Del Rio cost Van Dam a non-title match against Randy Orton, and attacked him after the match. The following week, Vickie Guerrero forced Rodriguez to face Del Rio. After winning the match, Del Rio put Rodriguez in Cross Armbreaker until Van Dam made the save.

After being defeated by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, CM Punk continued his feud with Paul Heyman, thus starting another one with Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel by attacking him the next night on Raw. Four days later on SmackDown, Axel challenged Punk to a match, which Punk accepted. On August 26, on Raw, Punk defeated Axel in a singles match and by vote of WWE Universe, Heyman would be forced to face Punk in the ring, but Axel interfered and attacked Punk. Heyman also joined in the assault. Brad Maddox granted Punk's wish of facing Heyman by giving him an elimination handicap match at Night of Champions against Axel and Heyman.

On the August 26 episode of Raw, AJ Lee interrupted the celebration over Brie Bella's victory in a SummerSlam rematch against Natalya, berating the cast of Total Divas, calling them "interchangeable" and "expendable" and stating they were not good enough to be wrestlers so they went into reality TV.[7] On the September 2 episode of Raw, AJ Lee interfered in a triple threat match between Natalya, Naomi, and Brie Bella, which was to determine the number one contender for her Divas Championship. As a result, Stephanie McMahon announced that AJ would defend her Divas Championship in a fatal four-way match against Natalya, Naomi and Brie Bella at Night of Champions.[8]

On the September 9, 2013 episode of Raw, it was announced that a Tag Team Turmoil Match to decide the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship would take place during the Night of Champions Kickoff, with the winners challenging champions The Shield (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) later in the night.

On the September 13 episode of SmackDown, Dolph Ziggler faced Dean Ambrose for a title shot opportunity for the United States Championship at Night of Champions. Although Reigns and Rollins interfered when Ziggler was closing in on the win, he was still given the championship match.

Aftermath

The next night on Raw, Daniel Bryan was stripped of the WWE Championship by Triple H, because referee Scott Armstrong made a fast 3-count, and Triple H seemed to think Bryan was in on it as a conspiracy. He then punished Bryan more by putting him in a match with Roman Reigns; though Bryan won, he was again assaulted by the rest of The Shield and Orton. Orton put Bryan's head in between the folds of a chair, but before he could further injure Bryan, the majority of face WWE superstars ran to the ring and attacked Orton and The Shield, with Bryan finishing them off with a high knee to Seth Rollins.

At Night of Champions (2013) Rob Van Dam won his World Heavyweight match by disqualification when Alberto Del Rio refused to release the Cross Arm Breaker, despite Van Dam reaching the ropes. On the September 20th episode of SmackDown, Triple H gave Van Dam a rematch with Del Rio at Battleground for the World Heavyweight Championship. Immediately afterwards, Del Rio would proceed to viciously assault RVD backstage.

CM Punk began feuding with Paul Heyman in July after Heyman cost him the Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE Championship contract. This resulted in Punk fighting and losing to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam (2013). Punk continued to feud with Heyman and his other client, Curtis Axel resulting in a handicap elimination match at Night of Champions (2013). After Axel was eliminated, Punk handcuffed and beat down Heyman much like Heyman had done to him a couple of weeks prior on Raw. However, Ryback made the save, putting Punk through a table and costing him the match. On the September 23 episode of Raw it was announced that Punk would face Ryback at Battleground.

AJ Lee would continue her feud with the members of the Total Divas cast. On the September 23 episode of "Raw", Brie Bella pinned AJ Lee during a 10-diva tag team match, leading her to a title match at Battleground (2013).

Results

No. Results Stipulations Times[9]
1P The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) defeated Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai) (with Naomi and Cameron), The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso), 3MB (Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre) (with Jinder Mahal) and The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Cesaro) (with Zeb Colter) Tag team turmoil match for a WWE Tag Team Championship match[10] 11:14
2 Curtis Axel (c) (with Paul Heyman) defeated Kofi Kingston Singles match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship 13:56
3 AJ Lee (c) defeated Natalya, Brie Bella and Naomi by submission Fatal 4-Way match for the WWE Divas Championship[11] 7:35
4 Rob Van Dam (with Ricardo Rodriguez) defeated Alberto Del Rio (c) by disqualification Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship[12] 13:24
5 The Miz defeated Fandango (with Summer Rae) by submission Singles match 7:49
6 Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel defeated CM Punk No disqualification 2-on-1 handicap elimination match; had Heyman not competed, he would have been fired.[13] 15:34
7 Dean Ambrose (c) defeated Dolph Ziggler Singles match for the WWE United States Championship[14] 9:11
8 The Shield (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) (c) defeated The Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young) Tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship[10] 7:27
9 Daniel Bryan defeated Randy Orton (c) Singles match for the WWE Championship[15] 17:33
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • P – indicates the match took place on the pre-show

Tag Team Turmoil match

Order Team Elimination Eliminated by
1 3MB (Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre) (with Jinder Mahal) 1 Tons of Funk
2 Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai) 2 The Real Americans
3 The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Cesaro) (with Zeb Colter) 4 The Prime Time Players
4 The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) 3 The Real Americans
5 The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) Winners

See also

References

  1. ↑ "WWE: Night of Gold (Official PPV Theme Song - Night of Champions) - Single". iTunes/WWE. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  2. ↑ "WWE: Big Epic Night (Official PPV Theme Song - Night of Champions) - Single". iTunes/WWE. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Recent WWE attendance figures (Night of Champions PPV)". Wrestleview.com. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  4. ↑ "WWE Reports 2013 Third Quarter Results" (PDF) (Press release). WWE. October 31, 2013. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  5. ↑ Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Raw results: Bryan suffers corporate justice against Orton and The Shield". WWE. August 26, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  8. ↑ "The Triple Threat Divas Title No. 1 Contender's Match went to a No Contest". WWE.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  9. ↑ http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/tv_reports/297575/411s-WWE-Night-of-Champions-2013-Report:-09.15.13.htm
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Tag Team Turmoil Kickoff Match". WWE. 9 September 2013.
  11. ↑ "Divas Champion AJ Lee vs. Natalya vs. Brie Bella vs. Naomi (Fatal Four-Way Match)". WWE. 2 September 2013.
  12. ↑ "World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio vs. Rob Van Dam". WWE. 26 August 2013.
  13. ↑ "CM Punk vs. Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman (Elimination Handicap Match)". WWE. 26 August 2013.
  14. ↑ "United States Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler". WWE. 13 September 2013.
  15. ↑ "WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan". WWE. 23 August 2013.

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