Night of Champions REACT!

Well, the Head 2 Head competition rolls on after Night of Champions, and thanks to a screwy DQ finish in the World Title bout, Jim accomplished a 7-1 record for Night of Champions, while Tom came in at 4-4.  That extends Jim’s lead to a whopping 9 matches, with Jim having a 45-14 record to Tom’s 36-23.  We still have four shows left this year with Battleground, Hell in a Cell, Survivor Series and TLC, so Tom isn’t out of it yet, but he needs to go on a big hot streak, and soon!  Remember, we announced on the Night of Champions Head 2 Head podcast that this year’s Head 2 Head competition is a Hair vs. Hair competition!  So, whoever loses will shave their head completely bald before Tom and Jim attend their first wrestling show together in 2014!  Let’s get to our reactions to what took place at Night of Champions.   

Jim’s React

Night of Champions came off as a rather forgettable show, made even more so by what happened on Monday night, but more on that in a minute. 

No shock that the Prime Time Players won the Tag Team Turmoil, as both Tom and I said, it was the only thing that made any sense, so glad to see they went that direction. 

Adding Curtis Axel vs. Kofi Kingston made sense, as the gimmick for Night of Champions is that every title is defended, so I liked that, and Axel and Kingston have pretty good chemistry in the ring.  If they let him (and they seem hell bent on not letting him), Axel could help bring some prestige back to the IC Title in that he can have good athletic matches, and it could get back to having that be what the IC Title is all about.  Kingston would be a great opponent to continue to do that with.  We’ll see what they do now though.

I actually liked having AJ make Natalya tap in the Divas match, as Natalya had been getting a bunch of wins lately, so having AJ make her tap made AJ look that much stronger as a character and as a competitor, which she should in the current storyline.  I love having AJ as Divas Champ, and she can keep the belt as long as she wants in my opinion.  There were pictures of her recently with the old Women’s Championship, which I think would make a TON of sense if she brought back that belt, saying she didn’t want to be a “Diva”, she is a “Real Woman”.  Good stuff.  Maybe a way to bring Paige up to the main roster too...but, we can talk about that more another time.  She’d fit the “anti-diva” thing to a T!

The World Heavyweight Title match ended so weakly.  I don’t know why they didn’t just have Del Rio make RVD tap, other than they want to keep it going and obviously didn’t want to put the World Title on RVD.  Dumb finish, although lucky for me, as I get the “W” for our Head 2 Head event though RVD didn’t win the title.  Honestly, I was sure I’d be wrong after I made that pick, so it was total luck in my favor. 

The Miz vs. Fandango in a feud no one cares about.  Yawn.  Man, did Fandango lose all his steam fast or what?

The Axel/Heyman vs. Punk match was exactly what I thought it would be.  Ryback coming in as the new Heyman guy works, as Ryback’s weakness is his promos by far, so having Heyman with him can only help.  It will be interesting to see how they go forward with Axel after this as well.  I loved the promo from Heyman on Monday, as it fit his almost mafia boss like character perfectly.  I love everything Heyman is doing right now, so this all works for me.  And some day, Punk will get his final revenge, and it will be awesome to watch.  Heyman also deserves credit for taking the beating he did before Ryback’s interference as well!

Ambrose/Ziggler was good, and these guys could have a great feud if it’s allowed to continue.  While I think Ziggler should be in the main event picture, if he ever gets back there, Ambrose hanging with him in this feud (and beating him) would do a lot to easily elevate Ambrose as well. 

The tag title match was about what we could expect.  PTP get some hope, but in the end, it’s the Shield reigning supreme as they have for most of their run! 

The WWE Title match was good and I like that there wasn’t a ton of gaga (they saved that for Monday).  Was surprised to see Bryan win the belt but the minute the fast count happened I knew he’d be stripped of it on Monday, saw that coming a mile away.  I am glad they didn’t just hand it back to Orton though.  Obviously Scott Armstrong was doing the bidding of either Triple H or Vince McMahon and his “they caught us Daniel” was orchestrated by them as well.  So, eventually Bryan will win it back and get the big moment.  I hope they haven’t cut the legs out from under him too much before that though.  

Tom’s React

Man, man, man…I can just hear the clippers now and feel the razor dragging across my head, watching my hair fall to the floor!

I am a competitor through and through, so I won’t give up and I think if you’ve followed and listened to Jim and I do our Head 2 Head podcasts it will be really interesting to see the way our picks play out with the final four pay-per-view events this year as I do what I can to break even or surpass Jim.

I did not attend this show as I thought I might and boy, am I glad.  Reading the results, I would have been SUPER angry for buying a ticket to this show or purchasing the pay-per-view (and I will admit that I was tempted with an impulse buy last minute!) with what went down and then what transpired on Monday night.

On one hand, I absolutely love the angle and the heat they are putting on The McMahon’s and Randy Orton and of course, the way that it continues to just get Daniel Bryan over more and more and more.  When the “real” pay-off occurs here, it should be good and should be special.

On the opposite side, you have to wonder how WWE feels about the good will with fans (or do they care at all?) when they give them a great moment that Bryan wins, only to make it nullified the next night on Raw?  I know how I felt and I did not invest financially.  The ending of Raw was still special and made for a great visual moment, but WWE needs to be careful about the goodwill of fans when it comes to those scenarios.

Taking this scenario and the other overlays with the McMahon angles, I would really love to see a Survivor Series match of Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Goldust/Dustin Rhodes and The Primetime Players vs. Randy Orton, The Shield of Ambrose, Reigns & Rollins and a reluctant Big Show.  I imagine that would be really, really good and an effective progression in the storyline.  We will see if anything close to that happens.

Other than those comments, I have little else to React to regarding the show.  I do think that the RVD finish was bad and screwy (more than just the fact that it helped Jim increase his lead!) and the fact it occurred in Detroit, MI and RVD being a “hometown” guy is just bad.  Everything else made sense in terms of how it played out, even if my picks did not align.

I cannot wait to get back on the “horse” and pick against Jim for Battleground!

Thanks for reading!  Be sure to like Two Spot Monkeys on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @twospotmonkeys  - There are big shows this weekend with ROH crowning their next World Champion and EVOLVE having a NYC area doubleshot, highlighted by what likely will be the feud blow-offs of the AR Fox vs. Ricochet and Johnny Gargano-Rich Swann feuds.

Jim and I will be back in some capacity next week to chime in on those things – Have a great weekend!