WWE Night of Champions is the pay-per-view that celebrates the top of the food chain and the people who have proven themselves to be above the rest of the pack. Every championship is defended and the only other matches on the card need to be important enough to justify being in the same league as those title bouts, so there’s no room for slackers.
Still, just like in any other event, there are a limited amount of spots in the upper echelon of the company, so not everybody can be the true focal points. They can’t all be winners; somebody has to lose.
Looking at the list of competitors with confirmed matches so far, who are the people that I feel will end up being the true standouts who perform the best, walk away with the most important victories, and make the biggest impact?
Let’s break down the top five…
Seth Rollins
The WWE World Heavyweight Championship and the United States Championship are going to be defended by this guy, and there’s a good chance he leaves with name still on both belts. My guess is he’ll be dropping the U.S. title and retaining the world title, but with the way he’s been pulling off the hard wins, I’m not so willing to place a huge bet on him losing either match.
Rollins is one of the best WWE has right now and he’s in such an important position in the company for a reason: he’s proven that he can handle it. There’s nobody who is featured as prominently as him for this show, since he’s playing double duty against two legends. If by some weird occurrence he ends up losing both matches, Rollins will still be the guy this show revolved around and he most likely will also be the MVP as far as match quality.
Sting
Despite how I think Rollins is going to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, I’m not foolish enough to buy into the argument that Sting won’t be one of the most heavily talked about and important people of the night.
This is Sting we’re talking about—someone who was the top guy in WCW and achieved Hall of Fame status over two decades ago, but still continues to build onto his legacy. He’ll be wrestling in his first ever title match in WWE in the main event and there’s even a possibility that he can become the champion. That is absolutely huge, and this is the biggest selling point of the entire pay-per-view.
Sting is a man who could lose and come out on Raw looking like a million bucks because of the way WWE booked him to lose, if they so choose to go in a route that protects him and makes The Authority look like total scumbags. This is what I’m expecting to see, but whether it’s a title change or a screwjob, I’m at the very least looking forward to a really solid match.
Charlotte
Do I even need to explain this? Charlotte has been gearing up for a Divas Championship run for months now and things have reached a fever pitch. She’s going into Night of Champions as the favorite to win despite her opponent being the longest reigning champion in the history of the belt. No wonder she’s on this list!
Who knows if the match will be as good as it should be, but one way or another, Charlotte is going to be walking out of this event with a win, a title, and a newfound responsibility as the top woman in the company. It will be her responsibility going forward for however long she has the title to be the one carrying the division on her shoulders, so WWE’s creative team will do everything it can to put her in a position where she’s a talking point at the watercooler Monday morning.
Team Shield
Already, the mystique behind Braun Strowman pales in comparison to the mystique of who the third man is who will be joining Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Assuming it’s someone of at least moderate importance and not someone massively underwhelming like R-Truth or Curtis Axel, that’s a huge check off in their column before the match even starts.
Even if that’s the case, WWE will surely go out of its way to try to sell it to the audience as the biggest shock of all time and something that everyone should be going crazy over. The next night on Raw, there will undoubtedly be a big segment dedicated to Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton still acting surprised at who turned up and what transpired.
Having a mystery partner normally means that team will win, so two of the biggest stars in the company (Reigns and Ambrose) will likely be seen celebrating with another somewhat big star as the victors of one of the few matches that does not involve a championship, but was considered worthy enough to be on the card nonetheless.
The New Day
Yes, I’m picking The New Day over The Dudley Boyz in this position, as controversial as that might be. There’s definitely a good chance that the titles change hands here and go to arguably the greatest tag team of all time, but don’t count out the trio of positivity just yet.
Clearly, WWE values The New Day, as evidenced by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon giving them somewhat of an endorsement on this week’s episode of Raw by dancing with them in the opening segment. If they were just a filler placeholder act, The Authority wouldn’t be acknowledging them and the production would have just moved on to the next segment differently. They are the tag team champions not just because the other options are so limited, but because they deserve it.
Plus, there’s the added factor that oftentimes, the older stars are brought in to do the favors and put over the younger ones. Perhaps The New Day won the belts back from The Prime Time Players to act as transitional champions, dropping them to Devon and Bubba Ray, but what if The Dudleyz are here to lose to The New Day? Xavier Woods could be the deciding factor with some kind of interference that keeps the belts just where they are right now.
One way or another, The New Day are going to be stealing the show in this match, garnering as much attention from the crowd as possible and continuing to be one of the most entertaining things in the company.
Who do you think will end up being the focal points leaving Night of Champions? Do you expect someone like Dolph Ziggler, Rusev, Ryback, or Kevin Owens to be a sleeper pick or will the five entries above hog the spotlight?
Tell us your predictions and general thoughts in the comments below!
