Roman Reigns celebrates his 1,000th consecutive day as champion by attempting to add the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles to his trophy case.
Sami Zayn makes his first appearance at a show in Saudi Arabia, in front of what should be yet another raucous crowd that is very Sami-friendly.
Seth Rollins and AJ Styles compete to crown the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion in what has “Match Of The Year Contender” written all over it.
Cody Rhodes looks to continue his story without encountering any more “Hard Times” along the way.
Mustafa Ali looks to shock the world by toppling Gunther and ending the Intercontinental Champion’s 351-day reign.
All that, and more, at WWE’s Night Of Champions show, coming to us live from the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Let’s rock and roll.
Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles – World Heavyweight Title Match
There were already a lot of complaints about the new title being “secondary” to what Roman Reigns owns right now. Having this match start the show isn’t going to fix that line of thinking. Whether you like it or not, though, what is happening with The Bloodline is still the hottest storyline in WWE. Sami Zayn is going to get a monster reaction from this crowd. Roman Reigns is going to get a monster reaction from this crowd. In this instance, I feel it makes perfect sense for the Tag Title match to go on last. Besides, having AJ and Seth on first is going to set the tone for everything tonight, from the “top this” in-ring work to getting the crowd amped up.
From the very beginning of the match, you could tell how much this meant to both men. It doesn’t matter how the new title compares to any other World Title in the wrestling business. The fact of the matter is that it’s a World Title, period, and both Seth and AJ are treating this as a big deal, as they should.
What a phenomenal freakin’ match, pun obviously intended. Both men went full throttle from beginning to end. It was a great combination of stiff strikes, counters, reversals, high-flying offense, and technical work. Seth and AJ treated the match like it was something special, and it came across as such. I’m glad they were given 20 minutes to work with, as well. So much fun here. 4.25 Stars, but I wouldn’t be mad if you wanted to go slightly higher with the rating.
Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus
As always with the women’s matches in Saudi Arabia, both Becky and Trish are completely covered up, not showing any skin from the neck down. However, Trish’s attire is a clear tribute to what she was wearing during her historic Monday Night Raw main event match against Lita back in 2004. Becky Lynch, on the other hand, appears to be paying tribute to The Bride from the Kill Bill movies. They both look like stars, even though they can’t wear what they would normally wrestle in.
I really like the added aggression that Trish has in her matches as a heel. It’s an aspect that is missing from a lot of her matches as a face, so it’s nice to see little touches like hair pulling. I try not to talk about match results in my reviews, because I know a lot of people read these things not to know who won, but whether or not a match was worth checking out. However, it would be tough to talk about this without discussing the finish. Zoey Stark came out from the underneath the ring to attack Becky when the Referee wasn’t looking, but it certainly appears that she broke Becky’s nose in the process. After nailing Becky with a knee to the face, blood was gushing from Becky’s nose and ended up all over her face. I like the idea of Becky feuding with Zoey, as they will have some fun matches while we wait for the inevitable rematch between Becky and Trish (SummerSlam?). Hopefully, Becky can avoid missing some time.
The match itself wasn’t bad. It had some weird spots, but the awkward spots came across more as being part of a fight than any “botch” or “bad wrestling.” Obviously, with the way the match ended, it was more about continuing this feud, with an added wrinkle, than being the end of anything. 3.25 Stars
Gunther vs Mustafa Ali – Intercontinental Title Match
To the surprise of nobody, the crowd is fully behind Ali here. I’m not sure that anybody in the building truly believes he has a chance of winning the match, but they’re rooting for him nonetheless.
This was about as well put together a “short” wrestling match that you’re going to see. Gunther looked like the unstoppable beast that he has been for the last year, but this was as good as Mustafa Ali has looked in a long, long time. The match clocked in at just under nine minutes, but both men put in a lot of fun work. Again, both men looked really good, and it ended up being a lot more competitive than most people probably assumed it would be. Will WWE finally decide they have something special in Ali, or will he go back to where he has been for the majority of his time with the company? Time will tell. 3.5 Stars
Bianca Belair vs Asuka – Raw Women’s Title Match
Every time I see the footage of Asuka’s heel turn, when she spit the mist in Bianca’s face, I can’t help but marvel at just how ridiculous the champ looked selling it. There’s over-the-top, and then there’s whatever the hell she was trying to do that night. It was bad.
When Bianca faced Iyo Sky at Backlash, the loud heel reactions she received were largely chalked up to the crowd in Puerto Rico being like the “bizarro world” crowds we often see in Canada. Well, in the early stages of this match, Bianca has received some more heel reactions, albeit slight ones that are nowhere near what she got at Backlash. WWE might have a tough choice on their hands soon.
Well… that was something. The crowd was quiet for what seemed like 99% of the match, and the match itself never really seemed to kick into a high gear. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, but it just seemed like it could’ve been a lot better. Weird energy all around. I think it’s time to pull the trigger on a heel turn for Bianca, though. Perhaps not right this moment, but sooner than later. 2.5 Stars
Rhea Ripley vs Natalya – Smackdown Women’s Title Match
I’m not sure what kinds of scandalous pictures Natalya has of Vince McMahon and Triple H, but they must be pretty crazy for her to continue getting title shots in 2023.
In barely longer than it took for me to type that first sentence, the match was over. Okay. Cool, bro. Let’s move on. I’m not giving a rating to a match that lasted a whole minute. No Rating
Cody Rhodes vs Brock Lesnar
I’ve said this before, but Brock Lesnar doesn’t get anywhere near the amount of credit he deserves for his selling. He has been presented as a superhuman destroyer, but if he likes and respects you, he’s going to make you look incredible, even if he eventually defeats you. He’ll bump his ass off for you, almost with reckless abandon.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this match. You know you’re not going to get a 30-minute contest from Brock very often, and there was the “Cody has a broken arm” part of the story here. My complaint was that far too much of the match was spent on Cody using his “titanium cast” as a weapon on Brock. Doing it once or twice is fine, but it happened a lot here. Actually, I have another complaint. Cody needs to be positioned as a big deal, sure, but he spent an abnormal amount of time locked in a Kimura. You know… the move that makes trained MMA fighters tap out, and a move that has been used to destroy arms in pro wrestling forever and a day… and he just had it locked in on his already “broken arm” for multiple minutes straight. C’mon, son.
Things are clearly set up for a third chapter in this feud, so this was probably never going to be anything truly special. It was fun while it lasted, though. I would expect their next match, whether it’s at Money In The Bank, SummerSlam, or elsewhere, to be even better. 3.25 Stars
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa – Undisputed WWE Tag Team Title Match
Sami Zayn has now wrestled in the main event of three pay-per-views in the 2023 calendar year, and the year isn’t half over yet. That’s amazing to me. He continues to ride that wave of momentum, and he’s still beloved by live crowds. Jeddah is no different. This crowd is losing their minds for him. I’m glad the crowd has come back. After the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Title matches, it looked like we might be in danger of losing them completely, but Cody vs Brock woke them up, and this match has them going nuts.
The WWE Universe has been asking for the story with The Bloodline to be taken to the next level. Well… without spoiling anything for those of you who didn’t see it, let’s just say the story is now at the next level. More brilliant layers of storytelling. The match itself was a lot of fun, as you would expect, but when The Usos made their presence known following the usual ref bump in a Roman Reigns bout, that’s when business really picked up. A really good, but not great, match. That’s fine, because the story is what’s going to be talked about moving forward, anyway. 3.75 Stars
Overall, that was a pretty fun show. It went a long way to further end the narrative that these Saudi shows are nothing more than glorified house shows, as we got a lot more newsworthy events than any house show is going to give us. Night Of Champions was definitely worth a watch unless you’re someone who is boycotting the Saudi events.