Welcome to the live results watch page for WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS 2023 pay-per-view!
The event is scheduled to start at 12 p.m. ET with the kickoff, followed by the main show starting at 1 p.m.
Follow along here throughout the show for the results of each match as well as my personal thoughts on everything throughout the night down after the separation bar.
Keep refreshing for new updates, check out the quick results at the top of the page for the winners and chat it up with everyone in the comments as the show goes on!
Quick Hits Results:
- World Heavyweight Championship Match: Seth Rollins defeated AJ Styles by pinfall to win the title.
- Trish Stratus defeated Becky Lynch by pinfall.
- Intercontinental Championship Match: Gunther (c) defeated Mustafa Ali by pinfall.
- Raw Women’s Championship Match: Asuka defeated Bianca Belair (c) by pinfall to win the title!
- SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) defeated Natalya by pinfall.
- Brock Lesnar defeated Cody Rhodes by submission via referee stoppage.
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) defeated Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa by pinfall.
Author’s POV, Running Commentary & Thoughts:
Nothing at all happened during the kickoff, as per usual. Matt Camp, Kayla Braxton and Peter Rosenberg simply ran down the card and gave their insights and predictions.
World Heavyweight Championship Match: Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles
- What is Seth Rollins wearing? He’s decked out in leopard print or something. Did he get the wrong memo and think the Marvel movie he’s in is Kraven the Hunter instead of being a Serpent Society member of Captain America: New World Order?
- On paper, this match is of course going to be good. But I can’t help but to feel like having zero build (beyond video packages) and being the opening match makes this even more so feel like it’s just narrowly above the Intercontinental Championship. They have a lot of rehab work to do for this title to seem on par with Roman’s belts.
- Styles hitting Rollins with a Pedigree got the crowd super into that near-fall.
- Despite having a (kayfabe) leg injury, Rollins is able to get a stomp in for the pinfall to win.
- Triple H awards him the belt after the match. The crowd loves it.
Hey! A James Bond themed Money in the Bank commercial! I’m a huge 007 fan. Check out my A Review to a Kill podcast series about the franchise where I geek out like crazy over it. Very cool advertisement.
Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
- The women are still forced to wear the full body suits. Thankfully, they’re decking them out with better outfits compared to the t-shirt game they used to have. This time, Becky Lynch has something Kill Bill Bride-esque with a yellow track suit. Trish has a predominantly black one with pink stripes.
- I am certainly not expecting a Match of the Year candidate here. Prove me wrong.
- Lots of showboating from Trish and the whole hair-pulling, shove your face type stuff. IE, the way wrestling was in her era, that people forget about when they think about the past with rose colored glasses and act like the athleticism was the same as it is nowadays.
- “I gotta admit, Trish looks AWESOME here tonight!” Michael Cole says as she mostly whiffs a neckbreaker.
- “I paid $11 for a blue check mark. That makes me a journalist.” – Corey Graves has the right idea. I miss having my legitimate blue check mark from Twitter before any yahoo could just pay for it, which made them meaningless.
- Becky locks in the Disarm-her, but Trish pulls her hair to get out of it.
- She gets in a Manhandle Slam, but Trish puts her foot on the ropes.
- Trish starts to crawl under the ring for a moment. Becky tosses her into the ring. But Zoey Stark comes out from under the ring, hits Becky with her finisher (giving her a bloody nose in the process) and tosses her over to Trish to score the pin and get the win.
- For anyone wondering, Zoey had on full normal clothes, rather than a jumpsuit.
- Good ending to a match that many people will overrate just because they’re fond of the performers. The storytelling was rock solid and I’m a huge fan of Stark getting in on this feud.
Intercontinental Championship Match: Gunther (c) vs. Mustafa Ali
- I love how Ludwig Kaiser gets more extra over time with his intro for Gunther. Imperium’s fantastic all around. I just wish they kept their old theme song.
- Ali stands no chance to win this match. After Raw, they actively went out of their way to make everyone know he’s a loser, too. Maybe the game plan was to hope fans will rally behind him to spite that (essentially, upset people into caring more) but nope, I’m not falling for it.
- As such, it’s a little hard to get into a match where you know it’s one-sided. But for their efforts, they’re doing a good job in showing Ali having the heart to put up a fight.
- Moves like his tornado DDT are still popping the crowd a ton. They’re buying into it. But they’re about to be disappointed as Gunt-yup, there we go. Powerbomb. Pinfall. Gunther retains.
Backstage, Kevin Owens hypes up Sami Zayn. They didn’t come all this way to lose their titles. Today, Roman Reigns loses.
LA Knight is in the crowd. They don’t have a match for him, for some reason, but they can show that he’s…sitting down. Yaaaaaaay.
Time for some more filler material to promote how Saudi Arabia had their first-ever Make a Wish and a video package about the Raw women’s title match and so on. Has anyone calculated the average time on these pay-per-views that are spent on recaps, vignettes, and commercials?
Raw Women’s Championship Match: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
- Why are they still not addressing that the women’s titles are on the wrong brands? They’re just acting like that makes any sense whatsoever and acting blind to it.
- Remember how the entire build for this match at Mania was that they looked at each other a few times? And then we waited a month after that for Asuka to just spit in Bianca’s face and…that’s it? Riveting.
- They’re having a good enough match. It’s Belair and Asuka. They’re great. But I just don’t have any faith there’s some big twist going on where Asuka will win the belt.
- And it turns out I’m wrong. Asuka is our new Raw women’s champion! Can we finally get a TRUE Asuka push, now? Instead of her just being champion while they focus on other people?
- I assume they didn’t put the belt on her at WrestleMania because they wanted Bianca to have the longest title reign, so they had to extend this past Backlash by just a few days.
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Natalya
- This was quick enough of a squash that I still haven’t gotten done adjusting everything of all the title changes from the previous segment and we’re already done with this.
- As expected. “Natalya never had a chance” says Michael Cole. Corey Graves blames it on Nattie asking Dominik Mysterio for his phone number for the distraction.
Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes
- Are they really going to follow one squash with another?
- Seemingly not. Cody’s putting up a fight and in control not too long into the match, after taking a series of suplexes.
- He hits two Cross Rhodes, but can’t get the third. Brock puts him in a Kimura Lock instead.
- Cody is fading…but he gets his arm up when the referee goes to check.
- Rhodes makes it to the bottom rope to break the hold.
- Cole is losing his voice on commentary. I love his enthusiasm.
- Lesnar goes for an F-5, but Cody escapes and hits a third Cross Rhodes for a…two-count.
- Cody keeps nailing Lesnar in the head with the cast, using it as a weapon. But Brock gets an F-5. Cody kicks out, though.
- “This is awesome” chant erupts.
- Lesnar gets another Kimura Lock in, and Cody passes out. Brock’s your winner by referee stoppage.
- If this is their means to write Cody out of Money in the Bank, I think it suffices. He put up a great fight and goes into the match not only having won (albeit by a fluke) their previous match, but with an injury, and almost got the victory AND didn’t tap out. That’s how you have someone lose while putting them over. I still think Cody should have beaten Roman at WrestleMania, though.
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) vs. Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa
- Very cool to see Sami Zayn in some traditional garb here, all choked up and wiping tears. Now, does WWE go with the troll option by having Roman win and cross off that “first man to ever hold 4 different titles at the same time” record they just mentioned? I still don’t think so. I’m banking on Zayn getting the win for his team to end the night.
- Sami cuts a promo for his entrance. Roman says “What is he saying?!” while trying to hold back a smile for this moment.
- The crowd is SUPER pumped to see Zayn kick off the match, which still hasn’t happened yet due to all the cheering. This is great.
- Nice crowd work, having Roman start, but tag out to Solo to truly start the match and save the confrontation for later.
- Ruckus crowd, riled up for this entire match. Textbook tag team action going on as they’re hitting all the right beats.
- It’s a Reigns match, so you knew the referee was going down. Reigns accidentally speared him.
- Zayn hits a Superman Punch on Roman, who retorts with a Superman Punch of his own to Sami. But Owens spears Roman to follow up.
- Jimmy and Jey Uso do their typical run-in, attacking Owens and putting the commentary table on him. Sami eats two superkicks, but Jimmy and Jey then accidentally superkick Solo Sikoa for the third. Roman’s pissed.
- Reigns starts pushing Jey around, so Jimmy superkicks Roman!! Jey is upset, asking why he did that. Jimmy says “I’m doing what you should have done a long time ago” and superkicks Roman again!
- Jey is flabbergasted, and Jimmy tells them they have to go. They walk off. Sikoa is stunned and primed for a stunner from Owens, followed by a Helluva Kick from Sami.
- A new referee comes down to count the pinfall and the champions retain in a great main event.
Tell us your thoughts on WWE Night of Champions 2023 in the comments section, and tune in to my live post-show podcast immediately following the event by clicking on the YouTube video below!
