Night Of Champions 2014

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 177 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: November 24 2014

The latest Night Of Champions event was promoted as a one-match show, with that bout not exactly getting universal acclaim. Which suggests that one should not bother buying the DVD for the show; however, a few strong bouts further down the card go some way to justifying a purchase.

Case in point: The Usos vs. Stardust and Goldust is another strong WWE Tag Team Title defence by Jimmy and Jey Uso, and has a surprising outcome. Though it had little reason to exist, Sheamus vs. Cesaro is another hard-fought slugfest between the two men; conversely, Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz is overshadowed by the guest commentary of American country group Florida Georgia Line (seriously), making the match feel insignificant.

An angle involving all of the former Shield members (in some form or fashion) gets a major reaction, and even Rusev vs. Mark Henry draws more interest than one may have expected. Next comes the highlight of the show, a fantastic battle between Randy Orton and Chris Jericho, followed by a skippable three-way between AJ Lee, Paige and Nikki Bella. Lastly, the big Brock Lesnar-John Cena rematch from SummerSlam is somehow both one-sided in Lesnar's favour and designed to promote Cena as something akin to an invincible superhero, who even has Brock virtually beaten before the dodgy finish.

Night Of Champions 2014 exceeds expectations due to the largely-ignored under-card and mid-card putting forth some strong efforts, but realistically the selling point is Lesnar vs. Cena, in which case you would be better off watching the SummerSlam match again instead. This isn't a bad DVD to own, but the card is clearly designed as a set-up event, making it tough to recommend for purchase.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 - Okay