This is what you might call a post dictated by the blog format.  I’ve not been closely following the build-up to this show (as you might imagine, there have been other things to occupy my attention over the last couple of weeks), nor do I have the faintest intention of watching it (since Chikara’s King of Trios shows are this weekend, and as Night 1 is already on VOD, I know that my wrestling-viewing hours for the week ahead are pretty much accounted for).

But let’s run down the card anyway.  Night of Champions notionally has the gimmick of every title being defended, which isn’t much of a gimmick, really – plenty of WWE shows have all the titles being defended.  Still, it’s something to say.  Of more interest this year is the fact that the WWE’s “WWE Network” streaming service launched around six months ago, so that the first batch of subscribers will be coming up for renewal around now.  In theory, that makes this an unusually important show, because it has to persuade people to re-sign.

1.  WWE World Heavyweight Title: Brock Lesnar © v John Cena.  There was a time when it was unthinkable to put the WWE Title on a part-timer, but the Rock set a precedent last year.  So here we have Brock Lesnar as champion, who wrestles only on PPV (or Network special, if you’re American), and who never appears on the regular TV except in pre-taped segments.  There is a case to be made that this makes the title more special.  The champion is no longer just one of the regular cast, but somebody who descends periodically from heaven to take on the challenger.

Lesnar won the title last month in a match which was reportedly among the most one-sided beatings ever seen in a main event; a protracted annihilation of John Cena from start to finish.  But the company has rather balked at the implications of following through with that line, and instead started rebuilding Cena back to his normal character rather more quickly than would have been wise.  Presumably we get a more competitive match this time, but for all that, it would make zero sense to go through all of that just for Cena to win the title straight back the next month.  My guess is that Lesnar wins here, less emphatically but still decisively.

2.  Roman Reigns v Seth Rollins.  Reigns is obviously being groomed by the company as the Next Big Thing, coming out of the break-up of the Shield.  They might be jumping the gun there, but it’s too early to tell; people said much the same thing when Reigns was brought up from developmental in the first place, and he did just fine as a member of the Shield.  Seth Rollins was the Shield member who turned heel and broke up the group, and so this is the inevitable match where Reigns tries to get his revenge.  The third Shield member, Dean Ambrose, is currently out injured at Rollins’ hands.  Which is to say, he’s actually filming a movie, but ssshhh…

(Rollins also currently holds the Money in the Bank title shot, which allows him to challenge for the World Heavyweight Title whenever he wants – but I can’t see him cashing in on fellow heel Brock Lesnar, so that’s kind of in abeyance for now.)

Again, it doesn’t make sense for Reigns to lose given his direction, and Rollins has been kept fairly strong by having him emphatically win his feud against Ambrose.  So a Reigns win seems likely, unless they go with a DQ to drag things out a bit.  On paper this seems like a good match, but for some unfathomable reason they already wrestled on Raw on Monday, and the reports on that one were a bit muted.

3.  Chris Jericho v Randy Orton.  A product of matching up random stars who had nothing else to do, basically.  Jericho is semi-retired and on a short term contract, while Orton is coming off a loss to Roman Reigns last month, so common sense says that we’re just filling the days on Jericho’s calendar, and Orton gets the win in order to rebuild him.  Again, though, it’s a very good match on paper – but Jericho’s current run has under delivered somewhat.

4.  WWE Intercontinental Title: Dolph Ziggler © v The Miz.  At least they’re doing something with Dolph Ziggler at last, but the WWE’s secondary singles title is still some way down the pecking order for both these guys.  It’s not that long since Miz was headlining Wrestlemania.  Admittedly that was the year when the real draw was a guest appearance by the Rock, but still.  It wouldn’t be him in that slot now.

Miz’s gimmick these days is that he’s unfathomably convinced that he’s a major Hollywood star (this being something of a joke at the expense of the WWE’s own, relentlessly unsuccessful movies division), and this feud has largely been used for low-quality comedy skits.  There was a time when the WWE was actually quite good at comedy, but that time has long since passed, and it is rare indeed for the WWE to attempt comedy without making the sensible viewer reach frantically for the fast-forward button.

It’s an okay match on paper, but given the history of the feud, I don’t expect much from it.  A Miz win wouldn’t shock me, to be honest; I still get the sense he’s a higher priority than Ziggler.

5.  WWE Tag Team Titles: Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso © v Goldust & Stardust.  Stardust is a repackaged Cody Rhodes, now a sort of Goldust II.  The two brothers now share Goldust’s lunatic gimmick, and ramble about “the cosmic key”, by which they apparently mean the tag titles.  They turned heel in the build-up to this match.  And even the WWE’s own preview page – which can normally be relied upon to fill like a trooper – struggles to find much more to say about the match than that.  Still, again, it’s a good match on paper.  The Usos have had the titles since March, so it could well be time for a change.

6.  Mark Henry v Rusev.  The evil Russian (well, Bulgarian, but shhh) continues to work his way through ever stiffer competition.  Henry is theoretically the toughest opponent to date – his gimmick is that he’s the world’s strongest man, after all – but in practice he’s still a mid carder.  So my guess would be a more competitive match than usual for Rusev, but still ultimately a win.  I struggle to imagine this being any good – both of these guys can have solid matches with the right opponent, but this seems an unpropitious match.

7.  WWE United States Title: Sheamus © v Cesaro.  Another largely generic build – and again, the fact that so little is being done to build effective stories for the secondary titles ought to be much more of a concern for the company than it apparently is.  Sheamus has had the title since May – did you notice? – and already beat Cesaro back in June.  So far as I can see, there hasn’t even been a televised defence of the title since early July.  Cesaro probably needs the title more, given that there’s evidently no intention of moving him to the main event any time soon; and once again, on paper at least, it ought to be a good in-ring match.

8.  WWE Divas Title: Paige © v Nikki Bella v AJ Lee.  With eight matches on the card, I’d normally guess that this wouldn’t get much time, but the Bella Twins’ angle has been given a hopelessly disproportionate amount of time of late, presumably because it ties in with what they’re doing over on the Total Divas reality show.  (Also, they had to do something big to get Brie Bella back into circulation once it became apparent that her husband Daniel Bryan wasn’t making his triumphant return any time soon.)

Nikki is effectively aligned with the heel Authority, hence being plonked into this match between Paige and AJ, who have been engaged in a feud of their own for ages.  That rather odd story largely revolves around them making increasingly incredible claims to be one another’s friend.  At any rate, my guess is that this match ends up being all about Nikki, and she doesn’t win thanks to something Brie does.  That advances her story and leaves Paige and AJ free to go back to their own story next month.  AJ beating Paige in the confusion is a possibility, since that would set up a rematch.

Worth getting?  It’s a strong card purely in terms of the likely match quality, and a barely existent one in terms of the storylines going in.  It’s not making a compelling case for my time, but if I had the WWE Network I’d watch it.