The Piledriver Report 07.22.09: Night of Champions: Let the Good Hype Begin

Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 07.22.2009

This coming Sunday, the WWE will be airing the Night of Champions pay per view. Unfortunately, the build up to the pay per view is more like a Night of Chumpions. This week’s Piledriver Report examines the reasons behind the poor build-up.

This Sunday, the WWE presents the Night of Champions pay per view where every match is a title match. Ever since WrestleMania XXV on April 5th, the WWE has been churning out pay per view events just about every three weeks. The night after the pay per view, as well as the rest of the week, the WWE usually recaps the previous pay per view event. They deliver the fall out from the pay per view. Realistically, that would give the WWE one week to set up the card, and an additional two weeks to hype the event. However, that is not the WWE way.

The WWE has been accustomed to announcing matches every week leading up to a pay per view, with the exception of the final week. They usually use the final week before the pay per view as the hype machine for the event. This strategy of building a pay per view hasn't been working. In my opinion, the WWE is treating their pay per views as an after thought. It's like they are telling the fans that their weekly shows are what you have to watch. Then they expect you to buy the monthly pay per view just because the show has the words "World Wrestling Entertainment" listed on the top of the marquee.

SMACKDOWN HAS ME SOLD



This has never been more apparent then watching the build up for Night of Champions. Let me rephrase that, it has never been more apparent on the RAW side of things. SmackDown! has been doing a nice job of building up hype for their matches on the show. For the past few weeks, Jeff Hardy and CM Punk have been delivering awesome promos leading up to their return pay per view encounter. Despite not "officially" being named a heel wrestler, CM Punk is doing a tremendous job with his slow turn. From the "eye injury" and showing the crowd his eye drops, to criticizing Jeff Hardy for being proud of being drug free for one year, Punk is playing the role of an old school classic heel wrestler. The old school heels were awesome, because they had a valid reason for doing what they were doing. A reason that whether or not you agreed with his actions, at least you knew that his character truly believed in what nefarious actions he was committing. That's what Punk is doing today.

RAW IS BORE



On the RAW side of things, the WWE is continuing its streak of staleness. At the last pay per view, the WWE featured a WrestleMania XXV rematch between Randy Orton and Triple H. On the July 6th RAW, the WWE presented a number one contender's match that was a rematch of WrestleMania 22 between John Cena and Triple H. This weekend, the WWE will feature a repeat of the RAW main event from WrestleMania XXIV between Randy Orton, John Cena, and Triple H. Notice the trend here? Not only is the WWE repeating WrestleMania matches, but also these three matches involve at least 2 of the same 3 wrestlers (Triple H, John Cena, and Randy Orton).

If repeating these previous main events isn't bad enough, to hype up the pay per view, the WWE gave us similar matches on RAW. Two weeks ago, they gave us a RAW main event that featured Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase, Jr., and Cody Rhodes against John Cena, Triple H, and Seth Green. This past Monday night, we saw Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase, Jr., and Cody Rhodes go up against John Cena and Triple H. The only performer, and I use that term loosely, that is missing is Seth Green.

THE PROMO OF DOOM



The stale match-ups to build up RAW's main event isn't the only thing hurting the RAW side of the Night of Champions show. The in-ring promo with Triple H and John Cena on Randy Orton was absolutely horrible. Could they make John Cena look any more like a bigger geek? It's bad enough that the male adult fan can't stand Cena, but now they are turning him into a nerd. Yeah, the kiddies will really get behind a geek. Seeing Cena pleading with Triple H that Seth Green is a hobbit, made him look pathetic. It was made worse when Cena gave a fist pump once Triple H finally agreed with him.

That wasn't the only thing about this promo that killed their upcoming pay per view match. The line that took the cake, and had to be the funniest line of the year was when Triple H proclaimed that he doesn't even care about winning the World title anymore. Well, if that's the case, why should we even bother to order the pay per view? If one of the competitors in the match for the company's biggest title doesn't even care if he wins it, then why should the fans give a damn about the title?

John Cena also got in on the Pinocchio act by saying that the fans will witness one of the greatest matches of all-time! Yeah, because the three put on a wrestling clinic at WrestleMania XXIV. To make matters worse, he then reminded the fans that they have already seen this stale match LAST YEAR!!! That's not the way you want to sell a pay per view on your go home RAW before the show.

THE GUEST HOST



Despite the poor job on Monday night by the WWE in hyping the WWE World title match, that isn't even the biggest obstacle in the pay per view build by the WWE's flagship program. The main culprit has to be the edition of the "Special Guest Host" to RAW. It seemed like the WW spent more time plugging these "guests" then they did on plugging the pay per view. Did Seth Green really need to be featured in RAW's main event, as well as its opening 15 minute promo to start the show?

This past Monday night, we got several backstage skits of ZZ-Top playing some of their old songs. ZZ-Top? Really WWE? Does anyone under the age of 30 years old know more then 3 ZZ-Top songs? When Legacy did their backstage segment last week, where it was brought up that Dusty Rhodes may be the Guest Host, I thought that would be good. I'm not a Dusty fan, but he knows how to sell an angle/match/show. Then they tell us it would be ZZ Top! Major UGH! So far, Ted DiBiase was the best host. They should just try to convince him to be the RAW GM. He was awesome.

Not to bash the entire pay per view build up, as I said the Hardy/Punk match has been built up very well. Anything that Jericho touches turns to gold, and he role as the healthy half of the unified World Tag Team Champions has been great. I don't even know who his partner will be, and he definitely sold me on being interested in the title match. On the RAW side, they have done a really nice job of building up the Divas title match between Mickie James and Maryse.

Despite the awful build up for the top match on the RAW side, I will still order the pay per view. The SmackDown! side has sold me on this one. It's times like these that the WWE should be thankful for the brand split. Otherwise, if I were seeing the Orton/Cena/Triple H build up on all three shows, I probably would have passed. Since I am going to order the show, it is obvious to me who the true champions are leading up to the Night of Champions. That would be the performers, and creative staff of SmackDown! No surprise there.