Better late than never…
Vengeance no more! Night of Champions is a pretty fun idea for a gimmick PPV, it’s just too bad the matches don’t look so promising. The top two matches may be decent, but the rest is good standard TV-fare for me… I’d love to see Night of Champions become the new Clash of the Champions and have’em put it on free TV.
Bold text represents my predicted winner.
WWE Championship
Triple H (c) vs. John Cena
Before the brand split, I thought HHH was easily taking this one to get his “win” back from WrestleMania those years ago. But now? Now I’m liking the idea of Cena winning the title belt (preferably through an Edge screwjob) and HHH having to run through La Familia on Smackdown to become “top dog” on a brand again.
World Heavyweight Championship
Edge (c) vs. Batista
See above. I figured Batista would take the World title to Raw, and HHH would keep the WWE title on Smackdown at first. Raw is still WWE’s A-show (for now at least), and I can’t imagine putting Batista on top would be a good move. I like the guy, I like him as a champion, but when someone like Cena or HBK or Jericho is an option… He’s the last guy I’d consider. Plus, I’d rather Batista not get the gold right now so he can stew and get bitter so that by the time Orton is healed up, we get Evolution 2.0 and both going after Cena.
ECW Championship
Kane (c) vs. Big Show vs. Mark Henry
This one is too close to call almost. I’d rather see Big Show doing things on Smackdown and there’s no reason for Kane to continue as champ right now. So… the Silverback takes it?
World Tag Team Championship
Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Ted DiBiase & ???
Okay, let’s finally do something with these belts, huh? While I love the idea of Cody turning heel and giving us a next-generation heel stable, I don’t see how Cody can turn on his own partner, walk out with a new partner and still be champion. Either way, Ted DiBiase Jr. ALWAYS gets what he wants and tonight he wants the gold!
WWE Tag Team Championship
The Miz & John Morrison (c) vs. Finlay & Hornswoggle
Finlay & Hornswoggle were drafted to ECW. Miz & Morrison retain and the feud keeps going. Though, M&M are in the same way as Hardy: ECW will be switching to Raw soon to tape their shows, which means M&M are gonna have to drop the WWE tag belts to a Smackdown team just like Matt will end up dropping the US belt to a Smackdown wrestler. Too bad there’s no teams on Smackdown to take the belts.
Unites States Championship
Matt Hardy (c) vs. Chavo Guerrero
I know the US title needs to be be taken off Matt soon, but I gotta believe (and hope) they don’t use Chavo to do it. Unless it’s a big La Familia screwjob or something to let Matt save face. There’s still time to let some other Smackdown Superstar (Kennedy, Umaga, Jeff, MVP, Shelton) pick up the belt from Matt before ECW jumps to taping on Monday nights, let’s not panic and put it on Chavo.
WWE Women’s Championship
Mickie James (c) vs. Katie Lea Burchill
I’m flip-flopping again. Originally, I was thinking Katie, but with Melina injured in the middle of her program with Beth, we don’t need two dominant heel Divas running around (and one with nothing to do). Mickie retains and maybe we’ll get a couple of three-ways (!!!) between Mickie, Katie and the Glamazon while Beth waits until Melina is ready to go again. Does anyone know how bad the injury is?
Other rumored matches are Jericho defending the IC belt and possibly the Smackdown Divas title getting off the ground. I hope they don’t waste HBK or Misterio in the IC match. Either one of those deserve proper build. No matter, I expect Jericho to retain.
As for the Divas belt, I’m reading that match probably won’t be taking place, at least not at the PPV. Just as well, with a possible IC title defense that would bump the card to 8 matches (which is the perfect number of matches as far as I’m concerned), 9 matches seems like overkill.
