The 2009 Night of Champions was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the third annual Night of Champions and took place on July 26, 2009, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The theme of the event was that all nine of WWE's active championships at the time were defended.
This was the final Night of Champions to feature the ECW brand and the ECW Championship as the brand was dissolved in February 2010, deactivating the championship along with it. It was also the final Night of Champions to feature the original World Tag Team Championship, which was held and defended together with the WWE Tag Team Championship as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship until the World Tag Team Championship was deactivated in August 2010 in favor of the WWE Tag Team Championship, just prior to the 2010 event that was held in September.
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 SmackDown's World Heavyweight Championship, Randy Orton retaining Raw's WWE Championship against Triple H and John Cena, Mickie James winning Raw's Divas Championship against Maryse, and SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio retaining his title against Dolph Ziggler. The undercard, featured Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and Big Show) defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against The Legacy, Christian defeating Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Championship, Kofi Kingston defending Raw's United States Championship in a six-pack challenge against Montel Vontavious Porter, The Miz, Carlito, Primo, and Jack Swagger, and Michelle McCool defending SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship against Melina. The event had 267,000 buys, down on the 2008 figure of 273,000 buys.
Production Background
Night of Champions is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 2007, with the event based around championship matches. The third event was held on July 26, 2009, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was the originally scheduled date and venue for The Bash (the two shows swapped dates and venues). The event featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.
As per the theme of the event, every active championship promoted by WWE at the time was defended. These included the three championships on Raw—the WWE Championship, the United States Championship, and the WWE Divas Championship—the three championships on SmackDown—the World Heavyweight Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the WWE Women's Championship—ECW's sole championship—the ECW Championship—and the promotion's two tag team championships—the World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship, which had been unified at WrestleMania 25 in April as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the umbrella term for two titles that were independently active but defended together on any brand. This was the first Night of Champions to feature the Divas Championship, which had been established in July 2008, just after the previous year's event.
Storylines Night of Champions featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, ECW on Syfy, and WWE Superstars—WWE's television programs. All wrestlers were from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.
The main rivalry from SmackDown heading into Night of Champions was between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy in their conflict over the World Heavyweight Championship. One month prior to the show, at Extreme Rules, Punk invoked the guaranteed title match he earned by winning the Money in the Bank ladder match against Hardy; he defeated him, and won the World Heavyweight title, after Hardy had already defeated Edge in a ladder match to win the championship. Hardy received his rematch against Punk on the June 15 episode of Raw in a triple threat match also involving Edge, who Punk pinned to retain the title after Hardy had hit a Swanton Bomb on him. The two had constant confrontations in the following weeks over the legitimacy of Punk's reign before they met at The Bash in a match for the championship that saw Punk get disqualified for striking the referee, leading to Hardy attacking Punk for what he saw as dodging competition (a title cannot change hands on a disqualification). On the July 2 episode of WWE Superstars, it came to light that Punk had suffered a storyline eye injury. Punk's rebuttal to Hardy's accusation was that he struck the referee due to his inability to clearly see a target. To clear up any dispute on to who the rightful champion was, SmackDown general manager, Theodore Long, announced another match for the World Heavyweight Championship between the two at Night of Champions, which was accepted by both competitors.
The Raw brand was represented by Randy Orton defending his WWE Championship. After defeating Triple H in a 3 Stages of Hell match at The Bash, Orton was without a contender for the championship, so on the June 29 episode of Raw, it was announced by the special guest host of the week, as well as onscreen matchmaker, Batista, that the title would be defended at Night of Champions against the winner of a single-elimination tournament. The semifinals commenced that night with Triple H defeating Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and John Cena defeating The Miz. Triple H and Cena faced each other on the following week's episode of Raw, only to see Orton's protégés, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, interfere in the match and attack both men. As a result, it was announced Orton would defend the title against both Triple H and Cena in a triple threat match.
After winning the ECW Championship at Extreme Rules, Tommy Dreamer had been involved in a scripted rivalry with perennial ally, rival, and former ECW Champion, Christian. The former champion was given a chance to get back into the title picture by having a match with Vladimir Kozlov to determine the number one contender. On the July 9 episode of ECW on Syfy, Christian won the match, thus advancing to Night of Champions to challenge Dreamer.
Edge and Chris Jericho had won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship at The Bash in a triple threat tag team match from incumbent champions, The Colóns, and Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase (collectively known as The Legacy). Two weeks following the event on the July 6 episode of Raw, the special guest host for the night, Ted DiBiase (Sr.), announced that The Legacy would challenge Edge and Jericho for the titles. In the coming week on Raw, it came to light that Edge had legitimately torn his Achilles tendon, which required surgery, as well as sidelining Edge for a projected several months. It was announced on the next week's episode of Raw, Jericho had a storyline contractual loophole, which allowed him to choose a new partner to hold the titles with him if Edge were to be injured, thus allowing him to defend the titles at Night of Champions.
Following a defense of the WWE Intercontinental Championship on the July 10 episode of SmackDown, Rey Mysterio was attacked by Dolph Ziggler. The following week on WWE Superstars, Mysterio and Ziggler had a verbal confrontation over what transpired, leading to the announcement of Mysterio defending the Intercontinental title against Ziggler at the pay-per-view.
As part of the 2009 WWE Draft on April 13, Maryse was drafted to the Raw brand, and in the process, the Divas Championship became exclusive to Raw. She made her first appearance as part of the brand on April 27, teaming with Beth Phoenix, Rosa Mendes, and Jillian Hall in a loss to Santina Marella, Mickie James, Brie Bella, and Kelly Kelly. Maryse then began feuding with James after she cost James a number one contender's battle royal, which was eventually won by Kelly Kelly, by spraying hairspray in her eyes. On the July 13 episode of Raw after the Divas Championship match between Maryse and Mickie James was announced for Night of Champions, the team of Maryse, Rosa Mendes, and Alicia Fox defeated Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, and Mickie James in a Six Divas Summer Swimsuit Spectacular tag match, in which Maryse pinned James. The feud would escalate the following week on Raw, whereby Mickie James would have a confrontation with The Miz, whereby she had her face sprayed by Maryse afterwards.
Event +Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael ColeJerry LawlerMatt StrikerSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraHugo SavinovichInterviewerJosh MathewsRing announcersTony ChimelJustin RobertsRefereesCharles RobinsonJohn ConeScott ArmstrongChad Patton
Pre-show Prior to the show airing live on pay-per-view, the fans in attendance were shown a dark match pitting Shad Gaspard and JTG (collectively known as Cryme Tyme) against Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith with Natalya in their corner (the three are known as The Hart Dynasty); Gaspard scored his team the victory, pinning Kidd to the mat following an STO.
Preliminary matches
The actual pay-per-view began with Chris Jericho and his mystery partner defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against The Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase). It was revealed his partner was Big Show, who was originally supposed to be in the six pack challenge for the United States Championship later in the night. Big Show 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 the Codebreaker, which led to Big Show placing a camel clutch on 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 attempted a dive onto Dreamer, who managed to dodge his opponent, who made his way onto the edge of the ring to execute a senton bomb onto his prone opponent on the floor. Once both competitors returned to the ring, they continued to counter each other's moves until Dreamer attempted to deliver a DDT, only to have Christian deliver a 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, The Miz, and Primo who was replacing Big Show. The match maintained a fast pace with each wrestler making multiple attempts to pin someone. The end of the match came when Carlito performed a Backstabber on Primo. Kingston was behind his challenger in time to perform the Trouble in Paradise to the back of Carlito's head, leading to a pinfall victory.
The bout for the WWE Women's Championship was next between Michelle McCool and Melina. As Melina made her way to the ring performing her signature split to enter, the champion dropkicked the challenger to the floor of the arena, starting an aggressively-fought match. The match spent a portion of time on the floor with McCool holding Melina on the barricade, dropping her on her face on the structure with a DDT. The match continued with both women trading knee strikes and kicks. McCool caught Melina by the shoulders as she went for a pin to retain her championship.
Main event matches