Review for WWE Night of Champions 2023

Despite my bitter taste about where this event is held, I have to admit that WWE do put on an amazing show, and this is definitely one of the best overseas PPVs (of the many WWE will have this year). I do wish they had leant more into the ‘Champions’ aspect as it would have been nice if every match was a championship one or at least to have had a ‘title shot’ stipulation. However, only two do not have a championship attached to it and though they do stick out like a sore thumb, they are not bad matches because of it.

The only lowlight is the blink and you’ll miss it match between Rhea Ripley and Natalya for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. This was pointless, made even more so by the fact they were so proud of how many women’s matches were on here and when you compare this with the first Saudi event where they couldn’t even show a woman nevermind have them wrestle it is a bit of a two steps forward one step back moment.

The other two women’s matches are fantastic. Bianca Belair defending her Raw Women’s Championship against Asuka again was a great match, though it did make me feel how this was such a wasted opportunity for her to celebrate at Wrestlemania. A great match by both though.

Trish Stratus against Becky Lynch was a good match and I was surprised by how good Trish still is, though she was never a mat classic wrestler she always knew what to do in the ring and they worked well together. This was not a championship or stipulation match and so did feel a little off and maybe should have had that to make it mean more.

The Intercontinental Match between Gunther and Mustafa Ali was a good match, but felt like WWE just throwing the hometown boy a match when he really didn’t deserve it. That being said, I was glad they didn’t have him defeat Gunther as this made the ending much more enjoyable and not predictable.

The other non-title match was Brock Lesnar against Cody Rhodes again. After Rhodes’ surprising defeat of The Beast at Backlash I thought that more would have been made of this match and maybe by adding a ‘title shot’ stipulation would have made it mean more. Instead this was just one in a feud that I wasn’t that invested in to begin with, however both are amazing in the ring.

The match of the night is a toss up between the crowning of the new World Heavyweight Champion between AJ Styles and Seth Freakin’ Rollins which is an amazing match between them. I am not sure whether I have seen them wrestle before, but this was a treat and certainly showed that Styles still has it and Rollins is currently one of the best in the company.

However, the main event pitting Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (his first time ever wrestling in Saudi Arabia) putting their WWE Undisputed Tag Team Titles against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa was a magical match. This was almost like their defeat of The Usos at Wrestlemania in regard to how amazing the reactions and the story is going into this match. The actual action in the ring seems to pale in comparison to the entrance and the ending of the match. Nothing else matters and WWE should be so proud of how well this Bloodline story has evolved over the year and it cannot be overstated how much this storyline is possibly some of the best writing not just in
wrestling, but in television in general.

Night of Champions was a great event and (despite the one blip) an event that is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish and one that if you haven’t watch I would recommend watching or rewatching again.