Night of Champions (2013)
| Night of Champions (2013) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Promotional poster featuring Kofi Kingston holding the Intercontinental Championship | |||
| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Date | September 15, 2013 | ||
| City | Detroit, Michigan | ||
| Venue | Joe Louis Arena | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Night of Champions chronology | |||
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Night of Champions is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE scheduled to take place on September 15, 2013 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It will be the seventh annual Night of Champions PPV, and the eighth PPV in the 2013 lineup. The usual theme of this PPV is that every championship in WWE will be defended (although this year the Intercontinental Championship will not be defended).
Background
Night of Champions features professional wrestling matches that will involve different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines that play out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers will portray villains or heroes as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.[3][4]
Following his win over John Cena at SummerSlam, Daniel Bryan lost the WWE Championship when special guest referee and COO Triple H hit Bryan with a Pedigree, which allowed Randy Orton to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the championship himself. This began a feud with Bryan, Orton, Triple H, and the McMahons, who stated that this was done because it was "best for Buisness", and they did not feel Bryan "fit the mold" to be the face of the WWE. They named Orton as the new face of WWE. This was followed by an attack by The Shield and an RKO by Orton. Throughout the weeks leading up to the event, Bryan would be put through many grueling matches, including a steel cage match with Wade Barrett, a gauntlet match against the three members of The Shield, and a match with Big Show, who was in conflict as he did not want to hurt Bryan, but was compelled to due to the threat of being fired. After beating Dean Ambrose in a match on the September 9 edition of Raw, Bryan was again assaulted by the rest of The Shield, and Triple H tried to make Big Show knockout Bryan again. Show refused, even with Orton coming out and yelling at him to do it, but Bryan recovered and hit Orton with a high knee.
On the August 5 edition of Raw Rob Van Dam defeated World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio in non-title match after Ricardo Rodriguez's interference backfired. After the match, Del Rio viciously attacked Rodriguez. On August 19 edition of Raw Rodriguez returned and informed Del Rio that now he is representing Rob Van Dam, with the latter attacking Del Rio twice on Raw, and on the August 23 edition of SmackDown. On the August 26 edition of Raw, Rodriguez cost Del Rio a non-title match against Van Dam, allowing him to defeat Del Rio again. Brad Maddox announced because of Van Dam's victory, he earned a World Heavyweight Championship match at Night of Champions.
After being defeated by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, CM Punk would continue his feud with Paul Heyman, thus starting another one with Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel by attacking him the next night on Raw. Four days later on SmackDown, Axel would challenge Punk to a match, which Punk accepted. On the August 26th 2013 edition of Raw, Punk would defeat Axel in a singles match and by vote of WWE Universe, Heyman would be forced to face Punk in the ring, but Axel would interfere and beat down Punk. Heyman also joined in the assault. Maddox granted Punk's wish of facing Heyman by giving him an elimination handicap match at Night of Champions against Axel and Heyman.
On the August 26, 2013 episode of Raw, AJ Lee interrupted the celebration over Brie Bella's victory in a SummerSlam rematch against Natalya, berating the cast of Total Divas, calling them "interchangeable" and "expendable" and that they weren't good enough to be wrestlers so they went into reality TV.[5] On the September 2 episode of Raw, AJ Lee interfered in a triple threat match between Natalya, Naomi, and Brie Bella, which was to determine the #1 contender for her Divas Championship, leading to the match being stopped and her getting beat down afterwards. Later that night, Stephanie McMahon announced that AJ would defend her Divas Championship in a fatal four-way match against Natalya, Naomi and Brie Bella at Night of Champions.[6]
On the September 9, 2013 episode of Raw, it was announced that a Tag Team Turmoil Match to decide the #1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship would take place during the Night of Champions Kickoff, with the winners challenging champions The Shield (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) later in the night.
Matches
See also
References
- ^ "WWE: Night of Gold (Official PPV Theme Song - Night of Champions) - Single". iTunes/WWE. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
- ^ "WWE: Big Epic Night (Official PPV Theme Song - Night of Champions) - Single". iTunes/WWE. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
- ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
- ^ "Raw results: Bryan suffers corporate justice against Orton and The Shield". WWE. August 26, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- ^ "The Triple Threat Divas Title No. 1 Contender's Match went to a No Contest". WWE.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- ^ a b "Tag Team Turmoil Kickoff Match". WWE. 9 September 2013.
- ^ "WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan". WWE. 23 August 2013.
- ^ "World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio vs. Rob Van Dam". WWE. 26 August 2013.
- ^ "CM Punk vs. Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman (Elimination Handicap Match)". WWE. 26 August 2013.
- ^ "Divas Champion AJ Lee vs. Natalya vs. Brie Bella vs. Naomi (Fatal Four-Way Match)". WWE. 2 September 2013.
- ^ "United States Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler". WWE. 13 September 2013.