Night of Champions 2014 Predictions

Music City will be the setting for this year’s Night of Champions PPV, and luckily for you, our very own Matt Addie is here to share his thoughts and predictions on what will take place tomorrow night inside of the Bridgestone Arena. 

• Tag Team Championship: The Usos (C) vs. Goldust and Stardust

Pick: Dust Brothers. A title has to change hands, right? I mean, it is Night of Champions, after all. I’d be interested in a second matchup between these teams, but maybe with Jimmy and Jey as the challengers. I’d be very interested to see what the Dusts do as champions; maybe Goldust would start licking the belt, or something.

• Rusev vs. Mark Henry

Pick: Rusev. I should love this angle, because I love everyone involved in it. Mark Henry is responsible for some of my favorite moments in recent WWE history. His “Hall of Pain” run, and that fake retirement promo he cut on John Cena were all sorts of awesome. Rusev is an old school, monster heel with an anti-American attitude that is a throwback to villains of the 1980s. By his side, the ravishing Lana, is the last of her kind (a manager/valet). Paul Heyman aside, Lana is the only legitimate manager in WWE, and does it well. All of this being said, why don’t I care about this? It makes me sad that I do not care about this. Maybe it was the fact they wasted the angle away in the closing segment of RAW up against Monday Night Football. You cannot use an angle as your “main event”, in an admission of defeat, and expect us to be all in. The match will probably be decent, but it could be so much more.

• Divas Championship: Paige (C) vs. A.J. Lee vs. Nikki Bella (Triple Threat Match)

Pick: Nikki Bella. First, please don’t chant CM Punk. I’m sure that falls on deaf ears, so let’s move onto the match. Logic tells me that Paige should keep the belt, since the Bellas story already has enough without the title. (It has bad acting, forced matches, and—okay, I’ll stop.) But, that’s logic; WWE has gone against it a lot recently. I bet they think it’s a good idea to throw the belt into the Bella’s storyline. Then maybe they can secretly hire Vince Russo to find out something creative to do with AJ and Paige, because I’m blanking.

• Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho

Pick: Orton. Y2J is going away to tour with Fozzy, so there isn’t much point in giving him a win. The might roll with an injury angle, from a vicious Orton, or just send Jericho off doing what he does best: putting people over.

• United States Championship: Sheamus (C) vs. Cesaro

Pick: Sheamus (via DQ). Cesaro has done the “heel US Champion” gimmick before, and although I want Cesaro to win everything, I don’t see him as the US Champion right now. Sheamus is stale as ever, to no fault of his own, so at least keeping some gold around his waste is something. Why not have The Miz go after him next? Or, Bo Dallas? Anything, really. I’d actually prefer to see Cesaro vs. Ziggler for the IC Title if the Bray Wyatt thing doesn’t come to fruition.

• Intercontinental Championship: Dolph Ziggler (C) vs. The Miz

Pick: Ziggler. Damien Mizdow and R-Ziggler will probably both get involved, but cancel each other out in some way. With rumors of Bray Wyatt coming after Ziggler and the Intercontinental Championship, I’m just praying that Dolph wins this to make that happen. PLEASE! Miz has been great with his heel run, but he could move onto others quite easily.

• Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins*

Pick: Roman Reigns. Didn’t we just see this match? Like, a few days before the PPV? Here’s the other part: the match on RAW ended legitimately, leaving no apparent reason for me to look forward to this on Sunday. My bet is that Dean Ambrose returns during the match, but I just cannot fathom why they elected to go with this match on RAW. It makes no sense to me, but any match with Seth Rollins involved will be a good wrestling match. So, there’s that. Rollins can lose, and not lose face, as he is carrying that briefcase. Reigns, on the other hand, just going over Randy Orton, needs to gather as many victories as possible in his climb to stardom.

• WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Brock Lesnar (C) vs. John Cena

Pick: Brock Lesnar. People all over the internet have commented on the problems with this rematch. Cena no-sold his loss, Lesnar hasn’t been on TV, and so on. But maybe, just maybe, they are doing that because Cena is just going to lose again. Why not troll us into thinking they’ll put him over? The money matches down the road are with Lesnar; Rock vs. Brock, Reigns vs. Brock, Bryan vs. Brock. If Cena wins, we’ve seen all the possible matches already (Cena vs. Rock 33!) I don’t mind Brock being the champ and only appearing on television once in a while, so here’s hoping we get 17 suplexes this time.

* Reigns was forced to undergo emergency surgery for a incarcerated hernia earlier today and therefore will not be able to compete on this card