Of all the WWE’s second-tier themed pay-per-views, Night of Champions ought to be the easiest to write.  The theme is, quite simply, that all the company’s championships will be defended on the same show.  This is barely much of a concept at all, since most of the titles are defended on each show anyway.  But it avoids having to shoehorn a gimmick match into a storyline that isn’t ready for it.  You can just book some title defences.

Despite this seemingly easy remit, the build-up for Night of Champions 2012 has been more than a little shambolic.  The problem for the writers is that the company actually spends very little time trying to build interest in the second-tier titles, and so most of the main storylines don’t involve them at all.  The result has been one featured match that doesn’t have a title at stake at all, and two matches in which characters engaged in their own storylines have suddenly been shoved into a title match even though the defending champion has nothing to do with the story at all.  Oh, and one match that is only taking place at all by accident.

The final week of build has also been overshadowed by the heart attack that commentator Jerry Lawler suffered during Monday night’s episode of Raw.  He appears to have come out of it okay – or at least, as okay as any 62 year old man with a heart attack is going to be – but inevitably, the main thing most viewers will have taken away from Monday’s show was a general air of wondering whether Lawler was about to die, matches airing with no commentary whatsoever, and periodic updates on Lawler’s treatment from his visibly distressed co-host Michael Cole.

Commentary on this show won’t be an issue; we can take it as read that Cole will do the show alongside Smackdown commentator Josh Matthews.  It’ll be interesting to see who shows up to take Lawler’s place on Monday – most likely, they’ll just use Matthews on both shows, but there are other options.  Matt Striker, still on staff as a backstage interviewer, showed promise as a commentator for a while, until he went a bit off the rails.  Paul Heyman is back under contract, though his storyline role doesn’t seem to allow for him taking the job.  Joey Styles, the former ECW commentator, is still employed by the company in their website division.  And William Regal is an excellent commentator on NXT – though his soft-spoken, relatively realistic style is probably not what the company is looking for.

1.  WWE Title: CM Punk v John Cena.  Punk is still the champion on Raw, and by this point he has quite unequivocally turned heel.  The idea, which is sound, is that Punk is annoyed that Cena continues to be presented as a bigger star, despite the fact that it’s Punk who has held the title for almost a year now – a remarkably long run by the standards of modern WWE.  Punk demands respect, and does so in ways likely to alienate as many people as humanly possible.  Cena refuses to give it to him.  Cue fight.

Alongside this, Punk has now been aligned with Paul Heyman, presumably as a manager.  Heyman, the former promoter of the influential ECW promotion back in the 1990s, has always been a great on-air talent, and a great mouthpiece for wrestlers.  Punk doesn’t really need someone to speak for him, but there are other good reasons for putting him with Heyman.

Firstly, Heyman is already associated with Brock Lesnar, who they want to build for a match at Wrestlemania.  But Lesnar is under a contract which only requires him to work a few dates a year, and so they need Heyman around to maintain Lesnar’s presence in the storyline.  Putting him with another major wrestler gives him an excuse to be around.

Secondly, Heyman and Punk do have a rational connection – it was (both in real life and on camera) Heyman who brought Punk into the main roster and pushed him as a star.  So their collaboration makes sense.

These two ought to have a good match – they have done before, and with Punk’s heel turn, this one has the potential to avoid seeming like a re-tread.  I would assume that Punk wins here, as it would be odd for him to lose immediately after turning heel and debuting a new manager.  Of course, hanging in the background is the fact that we know the Rock will challenge for (and presumably win) this title at the Royal Rumble in January 2013 – but I think Rock/Punk would probably generate more interest than a Rock/Cena rematch.

Also, the company is starting to make noises about how long Punk has held the title.  While he’s never going to have one of the all-time longest reigns, he’s already had the longest reign since 2007.  The next milestone for him to pass is Cena’s 2006-7 reign, which was 380 days.  Punk will pass that on 5 December, and will then be able to claim that he’s had the longest title reign since Hulk Hogan held the belt in 1984-8.  It seems to me that, having come this far, and with the Punk/Cena rivalry firmly alive, it’s well worth at least teasing the possibility that Punk will outlast Cena as champion.

2.  World Heavyweight Title: Sheamus v Alberto Del Rio.  What, again?  This is the third straight show to feature this match, and I don’t recall it being so spectacular as to justify yet another appearance.  The angle this time is that Del Rio has persuaded the company to temporarily ban Sheamus’ main finishing move pending an internal investigation into whether it’s too dangerous.  Thus far, this has simply resulted in him winning lots of matches by submission instead, so it hardly suggests that he’s in any greater danger of losing the title.

However, let’s not forget that Dolph Ziggler is still out there with his Money in the Bank title shot, giving him the right to challenge for the Smackdown title at any time.  Since Ziggler is a heel waiting for an opportunity to ambush the champion, this is another reason why his fellow heel Del Rio is hardly likely to win the belt.  But I wouldn’t be altogether shocked if Ziggler cashes in the title shot tonight to deliver the surprise title switch that’s got to come at some point.

3.  Randy Orton v Dolph Ziggler.  Not a title match, but the latest of a series of matches between these two, which have generally resulted in Orton winning.  However, Orton’s reportedly taking a break soon, in order to make a film.  Conventionally, you’d want somebody to beat him on his way out, to build their credibility.  Ziggler, who really does need a big win, is an obvious candidate for that.

This sounds like a decent match in theory, though the quality of Orton’s work can vary (and there have been some reports of rather boring matches between the two on house shows which padded for time before finally picking up the pace in the closing minutes).  I also wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see Orton win here – just to maintain the company’s idea of the pecking order – only for Ziggler to return later in the show and cash in his title shot.  They’ve done that before.  Notionally, the idea is that you’re setting up more challengers for the new champion by having him lose matches immediately before he wins the title – but given the way he’s been written, Ziggler has all the challengers he needs and more.

4.  WWE Tag Team Titles: Kofi Kingston & R-Truth v. Daniel Bryan & Kane.  This is one of the matches where an unrelated storyline has been suddenly, and very much at the last minute, pressed into service as a title challenger.  Kingston and R-Truth have held the titles since April, but very little has been done with them.  They have no particular issue with their heel(ish) challengers, Bryan and Kane.

Instead, Bryan and Kane are caught up in a comedy storyline which was originally intended for a possible co-promotion with Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management show that ultimately appears to have fallen through.  Despite that, the storyline ploughs on undeterred.  The idea is that both Kane (a raving lunatic from day one) and Bryan (essentially sane but driven to distraction by various events in previous storylines) have both been packed off by Raw’s general manager to attend anger management classes in order to help them come to terms with their issues.  Cue loads of skits in which Kane shows up at group therapy sessions in full costume, and so forth.  WWE comedy is usually intolerable these days, but Kane and Bryan are actually making this stuff work.

We have also had a segment in which Kane and Bryan were sent to the ring to deal with their issues by “hugging it out”.  That was a truly abysmal idea on paper, but somehow or other, they managed to make ten minutes of stalling over a hug into something that actually worked.

The long-suffering Dr Shelby’s latest attempt to help Kane and Bryan with their anger management issues is to force them into a dysfunctional tag team.  The idea is that neither of them really wants to be in this team at all, both are kind of sort of trying to make it work, and the result is a team who alternate between very politely trying to explain their concerns to one another, and lapsing into outbursts of frustrated violence.

Kingston and R-Truth have precisely nothing to do with this storyline, and in fact, they were originally scheduled to defend against the Prime Time Players – something that the WWE had to brush aside with vague handwaving about the Players not technically being the number one contenders after all.  (Kane and Bryan did at least beat them to earn this title shot.)  Still, this does at least make some sense as a development of Kane and Bryan’s story, and as the defending champions have been spinning their wheels for ages, I would not be remotely surprised if the challengers won here, to set up a brief run as odd-couple tag team champions.  That gimmick can work in small doses.

5.  WWE Intercontinental Title: The Miz v Rey Mysterio v Sin Cara v Cody Rhodes.  It’s about here that the writers give up and call it a night.  This match stems mainly from a storyline on Smackdown where Cody Rhodes has for some reason become obsessed with trying to unmask his masked opponents.  This never works out very well for him; he just gets distracted from winning the match and gets pinned as a result.  The whole thing hasn’t been thought out particularly clearly.

Anyhow, Sin Cara and Mysterio are both masked Mexican wrestlers, and thus logical opponents for Rhodes.  Unfortunately Rhodes doesn’t have a title.  So here’s the Miz, the current Intercontinental Champion, who has no real storyline of his own at the moment.  He finds himself effectively defending against an entire storyline that he isn’t in.

Could be a decent match on paper, but I’m thoroughly unconvinced that anyone has really thought out what the storyline is meant to be, or why they’re doing it.

6.  WWE United States Title: Antonio Cesaro v To Be Announced.  Yes, really.  Cesaro won the United States Titles from comedy wrestler Santino Marella on the last show, but they already did the rematch on an episode of Raw.  There then followed some wildly unsuccessful attempts to keep their feud alive as a comedy storyline, which seem to have been mercifully kicked to the sidelines.  That leaves Cesaro without an opponent, so he will defend against the winner of a battle royal to air on the pre-show.

Cesaro is a good wrestler but in need of a strong opponent and a decent feud to establish himself.  He’s genuinely Swiss, and his gimmick is basically to play up his European heritage.  What this means in practice is that the commentators occasionally remind us that he was banned from rugby for excessive violence, and that he gets to do a “word of the day” segment in which he tells us the same word in English, French, German, Italian, and what is described as “Swiss” (there’s no such language, but presumably he’s referring to Romansh, spoken by about 1% of the Swiss population).

Given that he’s only just won the title and really needs momentum, there is no way on earth that Cesaro should lose this match.  What he needs is a reasonably popular undercard babyface opponent to have a good match with.  Zack Ryder would be a fairly good bet – he’s not an important character, but he’s got enough of a fanbase that crowds are more likely to get into his matches.

7.  WWE Divas Title: Layla v. Kaitlyn.  If the Wrestling Observer is to be believed, this is a cock-up.  Layla El has held the title since April but has been given relatively little to do in that time.  She was supposed to defend against the winner of a battle royal held on an episode of Raw.  That battle royal, reportedly, was supposed to have been won by Eve Torres.  Unfortunately, she fell off the ring apron and accidentally lost the match to Kaitlyn (whose character has never actually been given a surname, as far as I know).

Kaitlyn has been on the roster ever since she won the women’s season of NXT, where she also supposedly won a shot at the women’s title.  That never happened and was quietly forgotten about.  And that’s because Kaitlyn’s frankly not very good.  Layla has her work cut out for her, trying to get a good match out of this.

It’s abundantly obvious that Eve is still being built up as the main heel in the women’s division, and Layla’s far better placed to give her a decent match, so a win for Layla in a mercifully brief match seems a safe bet.

Incidentally, one of the great mysteries of the women’s division is why we’re getting the likes of Kaitlyn in wrestling matches, while Naomi Knight is being used simply as a dancer to accompany Brodus Clay to the ring.  Reportedly, she’s a very good wrestler, certainly by the standards of the WWE’s women’s division – yet the only time they’ve allowed her to wrestle was when they needed a last-minute replacement opponent on a house show.

Worth buying?  It’s not a bad line-up, and it’s refreshingly light on gimmick matches.  On the other hand, it’s also very light on actual storyline in some cases.  It’s likely to be a decent show; the question is really whether it’s going to be that much better than the sort of matches you can see for free headlining Raw or Smackdown.  I can’t help feeling it’s lacking something to push it beyond that point.