Night Of Champions 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 178 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: November 16 2015

(To read a full event review of WWE Night Of Champions 2015, click here.)

The 2015 edition of Night Of Champions is now available on DVD. Watching the event a few months down the line provides an interesting insight into how much things have changed for a number of reasons.

The opener between Ryback and Kevin Owens is a decent Intercontinental Title bout, although it's clearly a step down from KO's previous PPV encounters with John Cena and Ryback. The subsequent Dolph Ziggler-Rusev bout continues the love quadrangle storyline which at this point was past its sell-by date, and would soon become known as a calamity when it was abruptly dropped shortly after NOC due to Lana announcing her real-life engagement to RuRu.

The Tag Team Title match between The New Day and The Dudleyz is intriguing to see in hindsight because, at the time, it seemed entirely possible that New Day would lose the straps to the veterans, whereas such a decision nowadays would be a little bit controversial given New Day's popularity. Still, the match is fun to watch (Xavier Woods playing the Rocky tune on his trombone is hilarious), as the rivalry was the most notable tag feud for a while at this point.

Watching the Divas Title scrap between Nikki Bella and Charlotte is less intriguing than it was in September because the impact of the finish is much lower than at the time when Nikki had held the belt since Survivor Series, and upon second viewing, it feels like Charlotte takes a non-stop beating until the finish.

The six-man tag between The Wyatts and the team of Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and mystery partner Chris Jericho is notable for the high-impact action and the big pops for the babyface team (Roman's cheers must have been music to his ears considering the boos which accompanied him since Royal Rumble 2015 and continue to do so today); I didn't realise how huge the reaction was to Jericho's return. It's slightly dampened when watching it again by the fact that the teased Y2J heel turn went nowhere (at least in relation to Dean and Roman), and the expected yet disappointing omission of the fan lining up with the ex-Shield "brothers" beforehand (disappointing because of Bray Wyatt's brilliant ad-lib of "Is that your partner?")

The double main event sees Seth Rollins in action twice, defending the United States and WWE Titles against John Cena and Sting respectively. The match with Cena is really good and, to me, a better match than their SummerSlam encounter, although Rollins looks inferior to Cena in its aftermath. Seth vs. Sting is a match that fans either loved or hated; I personally enjoyed it, but time has proven that the neck injury Sting suffered towards the end could indeed be career-ending, which makes the finish of the match hard to watch.

There are post-match shenanigans involving Sheamus (who got a huge ovation, a one-off in a year of apathy for The Celtic Warrior) and Kane, after which Rollins had took two Attitude Adjustments, a Scorpion Deathdrop, a Brogue Kick, a Chokeslam and a Tombstone Piledriver (which must be some kind of a record). The DVD extras are limited to an interview with an almost-heelish Dudleyz (bear in mind that they were babyfaces at the time) and a fun six-man tag pitting Neville and The Lucha Dragons vs. Stardust and The Ascension, highlighted by an incredible dive by the babyface squad.

Night Of Champions 2015 is definitely not a bad event, but while the final three matches are worth watching, the card as a whole still feels like a B-show. Nevertheless, if you decide to relive this show on DVD, you should find it to be an entertaining viewing.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 - Okay