WWE Night Of Champions 2009.
Night of Champions (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on July 26, 2009 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the third annual event under the Night of Champions name and the ninth annual event under the Vengeance/Night of Champions chronology. Similar to the previous two events, the concept of the show was that every championship in the company would be defended. It featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. Eight matches were contested on the card.
This show was considered a supercard, which featured more than one main event match. The main event matches featured were: Jeff Hardy defeating CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship, Randy Orton retaining the WWE Championship against Triple H and John Cena, Mickie James winning the WWE Divas Championship against Maryse, and WWE Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio retain his title against Dolph Ziggler. The undercard, featured Chris Jericho and The Big Show defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against The Legacy and Tommy Dreamer versus Christian for the ECW Championship.
Preliminary Matches:
The Big Show was revealed to be Chris Jericho’s partner to hold the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.
The show commenced with Chris Jericho and his mystery partner defending the Unified WWE Tag Team titles against Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes. It was revealed his partner was The Big Show, who started the match taking advantage of his size on his opponents before tagging in his partner, who was double-teamed by the challengers. The match ended when Jericho caught DiBiase with his signature knees to the face dubbed the Codebreaker, which led to The Big Show placing a Camel Clutch on Ted DiBiase, causing DiBiase to submit to retain the titles.
Following was Tommy Dreamer defending the ECW Championship against Christian. The match was fought at a quick pace with both men being able to counter the others attempt at offense. The action made its way out of the arena and to the floor of the arena as Christian threw the champion into the commentator’s table. He made his way back into the ring in an attempt to dive onto Dreamer, who managed to dodge his opponent, who made his way onto the edge of the ring to execute flip dive known as the senton bomb onto his prone opponent on the floor. Once both competitor returned to the ring, they continued to counter each other’s moves until Dreamer grabbed the challenger by the head in an attempt to drop him with a DDT, only to have Christian spin his way out to grab Dreamer’s arms, and spin him behind his back before driving him on his face with a move called the Killswitch to pin his opponent and win his second ECW Championship.
The next title to be defended was Kofi Kingston’s WWE United States Championship against Jack Swagger, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), Carlito, Primo and The Miz. The match maintained a fast pace with each wrestler making multiple attempts to pin someone. The end of the match came when Carlito got behind Primo, pulling him back to the ground driving his knees into Primo’s back with a move called the Backstabber. Kingston was behind his challenger in time to perform his 540-degree spinning kick in the air called Trouble in Paradise to the back of Carlito’s head, leading to a pinfall victory.
Main Event Matches:
Triple H was one of the two challengers for the WWE Championship.
The first main event of the evening was the WWE Championship match between Randy Orton, Triple H, and John Cena. The match started with Orton attempting to move away from the challengers in an attempt to let both of the fight each other; this was followed by Triple H and Cena following the champion outside of the ring. The three men took turns brawling with one another until Orton was dropped to the floor with a double-team suplex from his opponents. Triple H grabbed his fellow challenger by the legs, driving his spine into the mat; he went to pin Cena only to have Orton grab him by the leg, and pull him out of the ring, throwing him into the commentator’s table. Cena interjected himself into a fight between all three on the table, throwing Orton into the crowd. As Orton recovered and returned to the ring, he was thrown out while Cena caught Triple H in the middle of the ring with a toehold simultaneously with a sleeper hold (both moves together are called the STF) in an attempt to make him submit. Orton made his way back into the ring in an attempt to punt Cena while he had Triple H in the hold; Cena quickly dodged, only to be taken down by the champion. This was followed by Orton stomping down on both of his opponents. Once both challengers recovered, Triple H took down Orton with a variation of a leg lock often called the Sharpshooter; Cena also grabbed the champion by wrapping his legs around his arm and applying a crossface hold. Orton proceeded to tap out, only for the referee to declare the match would continue, as he couldn’t decide who won the match. Orton’s protégés, Rhodes and DiBiase, interfered to assault the challengers. As Cena gained an upper hand against Rhodes to hoist him onto his shoulders, Orton grabbed Cena by the head and dropped him to the mat on his face with a move called the RKO, leading to a pin on Cena.
Next was Rey Mysterio defending the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler gained an early advantage by muscling his opponent into the turnbuckle with a powerbomb. In attempt to ground his opponent, Ziggler locked Mysterio in a headlock and rode him into the mat. Mysterio managed to escape his opponent’s onslaught by connecting with a kick to his opponent. He ascended the top turnbuckle in an attempt to dive on his opponent, who countered with a dropkick. The challenger ascended the turnbuckle himself with Mysterio on his shoulder before jumping off dropping Mysterio on his stomach onto Ziggler’s knee. After an attempt to pin him, Mysterio retaliated by kicking his opponent onto the middle rope before swinging through them to kick Ziggler in the face with a move called the 619. After connecting, he jumped off the top rope, connecting with a body press to pin the challenger and retain the title.
CM Punk defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Hardy.
The main event of the show was CM Punk defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Hardy. Punk dominated the challenger early with a series of kicks and arm locks before Hardy escaped to the floor. Punk dove through the ropes at Hardy, only to crash as his opponent moved away only to have Hardy go for a dive of his own and Punk reciprocate with his own dodge. The champion made his way back to the ring in the hopes of the referee declaring him the winner via countout, the act of a wrestler failing to appear in the ring for the referee’s count of 10; Hardy made his way back in the ring by nine. A frustrated Punk continued his assault with knees before Hardy countered with a rebound kick off the top turnbuckle called the Whisper in the Wind followed by a pinning attempt. Punk escaped the pin with a riding inverted chinlock for a submission attempt. Hardy escaped with some offense before ascending the top turnbuckle and attempting with his finishing maneuver, the Swanton bomb, only to have the champion lift his knees up, driving them into Hardy’s back. Punk exploited his advantage, and hoisted Hardy onto his shoulders before dropping him into a knee to the face called the Go To Sleep (GTS). He went for the pin, only to have Hardy respond by the referee’s count of two. Punk decided to leave the ring at that time in hopes of getting counted out, which would allow him to retain his championship. Hardy headed him off on the entrance ramp, and threw him in the ring. Once both men were back in the ring, Punk made one more attempt at the GTS only to have the challenger counter by grabbing his opponent by the head and dropping him to the mat with his signature move, the Twist of Fate, before another attempt at the Swanton Bomb, which fully connected for Hardy to pin Punk for his second World Heavyweight Championship.
