The sold out Allstate Arena was rocking Sunday night for WWE with several great matches and big title changes. The Pro Wrestling Examiner was on site in section 204 (yep, we got the cheap seats) to get all of you out there in internet land an exclusive in-the-arena perspective of the pay per view, Night of Champions. You can obviously get the straight forward results of this show through several other sources online including right here on echoflam.com.
So here is a report giving you a feel for how the event went over with the rabid fans in attendance.
- The Match of the Night honors for this show really nail down, but two superb matches stand out on a show solid top-to-bottom. The 6 Pack Challenge created pure electricity in the fans with John Cena and Randy Orton getting a ton of chants and cheers. The Elimination format made the match really exciting and it created an engaging pace with double teams attacks and finishing moves coming in at a frenetic pace. A match like this with 6 superstars all going at it could easily into a car crash with bad results. This match was quite the opposite. Orton winning the WWE Championship was epic and very satisfying.
- The other candidate for ‘Match of the Night’ has to be the comeback story that was Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) upsetting the loud mouth Miz to capture his first WWE title, the United States Championship. This match was so hard to call which for the Chicago fans, it felt like it would go either way. Bryan fending off the interference of Alex Riley and having several close falls on the Miz made for an incredible fever pitch in the match’s final minutes. Was anyone else surprised when The Miz tapped out to the Labell Lock? Kudos to WWE for making Daniel Bryan the new US Champion and making good with a future main eventer who almost lost this past summer.
- Worst Match of the Night: The Women’s Championship Unification Match got a reaction when the smoking hot Divas paraded to the ring but after that the mojo was not there. This match could serve the purpose of elevating the slagging state of women wrestling in the WWE. The No Holds Barred match for World Heavyweight Championship had an emotional investment for die hard fans with the living legend, Undertaker reigniting his family feud with his brother, Kane. Yet when the match actually went down it came off as a slow plodding contest that had it’s best moments near the end with the reversals. You should also not forget the Deadman clearing the guard rail with a big dive. The finish of Kane beating the ‘Taker clean does a lot more for the future of their current story but tonight these two future Hall of Famers just did not compare to other stand out matches on the card.
Other observations from section 204
A lot of fans were audibly predicting Miz cashing in his Money in the Bank later in the night, but after tapping out the most arrogant man in the WWE did not seem to want to show his face a second time in one night. – Randy Orton whose had a checkered past of getting into public arguments with fans and being a generally hostile guy, was posing for pictures and slapping high fives around the ring with the WWE faithful. Orton honestly appeared delighted with his WWE Championship performance.This was not the ice cold Orton we have to come to know.
It was a hushed moment when John Cena whose easily the biggest star in pro wrestling, took a tumble off the top rope and appeared to tweak his knee on the middle rope. Another injury to Cena at this point in his career would be bad news for WWE. Fortunately, the leader of Cenation came back to his feet to continue the match. Many 20 something male fans were groaning in the Allstate Arena when Cena turned out to be O.K.
C.M Punk may have been squashed by the Big Show with a KO Punch, but his pre-match promo which ridiculed the people of his hometown was the best on-mic moment of the night. Almost everything Punk said was self-deprecatingly funny to any Chicagoan who knows our city is traditionally corrupt. The Second City Saint did himself south of Madison Avenue, when he took a shot at the White Sox.
Whoever designed the layout of the Allstate Arena (formerly called the Rosemont Horizon) deserves an award from wrestling fans. This arena very accommodating venue for pro wrestling with almost seat giving you a perfect view.
Something overheard during the 6 Pack Challenge Match : “Did Cena just seriously just do a dropkick? Yeah I think he did.”
Older fans who complain about high pitch screams of little kids at WWE shows, should just look at a young John Cena fan and see how happy they are during one of his match. And then laugh at directly innocent child’s face when Superman Cena gets eliminated by the Nexus’s Wade Barrett. That sounds mean and cruel, but it’s fun to watch when your two rows away from it. Marking out with kids who yell at you for cheering against their favorites makes for great evening.
A jolly fat wrestling fan was strutting around in a Undertaker costume.
The loudest ‘pops’ came for the following superstars
Randy Orton winning the WWE Championship
John Cena eliminating Edge in the 6 Pack Challenge
Daniel Bryan winning the United States Championship
Kofi Kingston got a loving reaction from the young children in the audience,even with on the losing end an Intercontinental Championship Match.
What did YOU think of Night of Champions? How did the show come off on TV? Did the Miz make a mistake by not cashing in his title shot? Post your thoughts on WWE Night of Champions below in the comments section.