WWE Night of Champions PPV Report
September 20, 2015
Houston, Tex. at Toyota Center
Report by James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Reporting live from the building tonight for WWE's all-title-match PPV...

The pre-show was posted up outside the building at the main entrance. Renee Young, Booker T, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves were enjoying the beautiful sunshine outside talking in and out of video packages hyping the PPV.

(a) Stardust & The Ascension best Neville & Lucha Dragons at 9:44 in a six-man tag match. The crowd was into the high-flying especially from Kalisto. They were also chanting Cody's name more than taunting Stardust with a "Cody" chant. Neville had it won with the Red Arrow on Stardust, but Viktor ran into the ring to shove down Neville, setting up for Cross Rhodes and the win. A deal to show Neville would have won one-on-one without Ascension's help.

The return date for Houston is Friday, January 8 for a house show. Interesting.

LIVE PPV RESULTS

(1) Kevin Owens beat Ryback at 9:32 to capture the IC Title. The crowd was really split - Owens could be a great working-class hero type babyface down the road. Ryback dominated early, then it was an evenly-matched battle until Owens raked Ryback's eyes to escape the Shell-Shock and roll up Ryback for a quick win to win the belt.

Announcement: Brock Lesnar is taking over October. MSG show and Stone Cold podcast and re-match vs. The Undertaker at the HIAC PPV.

(2) Dolph Ziggler beat Rusev (w/Lana) at 13:47. Slow middle as the crowd chanted for non-participant Lana. Summer, wearing Dolph's earrings, got involved yelling at the ref for not counting a three for Rusev, who thought he won. She got kicked out, then chucked a shoe toward the ref, who ducked, and the shoe hit Rusev, who backed into Zig-Zag for the pin. The feud is built on outside-the-ring participants and theatrics, so it's a bit of a struggle in a one-on-one setting.

(3) The Dudleys beat New Day via DQ at 9:57; New Day retained the Tag Titles. Dudleys hit the 3D on Kofi after clearing Big, but Xavier ran into the ring and attacked to stop the pin, causing the DQ. Lots going on during the match with the presumed heels New Day trying to be entertaining, per WWE booking, distracting from the Dudleys's selling and comebacks. Post-match, New Day went back on their "Save the Tables" campaign by bringing one into the ring, but the, um, tables were turned when Xavier took a 3D to get comeuppance.

(4) Charlotte beat Divas champion Nikki Bella via submission at 12:41 to capture the Divas Title. Nikki got a ton of offense dominating the match working Charlotte's left leg. Charlotte eventually got the figure-eight for the win. Ric Flair ht the ring to celebrate and cry with Charlotte, along with Paige and Becky. Big moment for the Flairs.

(5) The Wyatts beat Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & mystery partner Chris Jericho at 13:04 in a six-man tag match. The match was all about getting over Braun Strowman and his rudimentary offense, which looked pretty bad live. Jericho faded out to Braun's elevated clutch for the finish. Right before Jericho was introduced, a fan charged the ring to yell at Reigns. A few refs eventually got him out of the ring. The arena's ringside security was turning around to watch the show a lot, so not surprising. After the match, Jericho blew off Reigns and Ambrose. Overall pops - huge for Jericho's surprise, Reigns huge reaction from the ladies, and Ambrose big from the whole audience.

(6) John Cena beat Seth Rollins at 16:01 to capture the US Title. Really hot match. The crowd was into it and popped for Cena winning back the title with an AA following a top-rope guillotine leg drop. Seth was really good in this match, especially owning a mid-match Wave. It's Playoffs baseball season in Houston.

After the match, Seth tried to run away with the WWE Title, but Cena threw him back into the ring for the main event...

(7) Seth Rollins beat Sting at 14:56 to retain the WWE Title. Seth won with a roll-up to counter the Scorpion Deathlock after Sting sold a head injury taking a Bucklebomb. The medic checked on him, but the match continued and they quickly went to the finish.

Afterward, Sting was helped backstage by a few refs, then Sheamus's music played. He wanted to cash in MITB on Rollins, but Kane's music played. Kane, returning with a mask, chokeslammed Rollins, then chokeslammed Sheamus. Kane finished Seth with a Tombstone. It looks like the assembly line rolls on to Kane challenging Seth next month at Hell in a Cell.

After the PPV ended, Seth sold on the mat for a while as the crowd buzzed about the final events of the night, liking how the show ended. Lilian Garcia asked for a round of applause for Seth, which of course turned into boos. Seth took the mic and - as he limped away from the ring selling two matches - Seth proclaimed himself The Man and the best WWE champion of all-time. Seth said he's better than Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair, and The Rock. Omitted from his list were "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and, more notably for storyline purposes, Triple H. That's how the show ended.

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