WWE Night of Champions was a professional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV) and livestreamingevent produced by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. The inaugural event took place in June 2007 and was a crossover with Vengeance titled Vengeance: Night of Champions. In 2008, Vengeance was dropped in favor of Night of Champions and it took over the June PPV slot. The event then moved to July in 2009 before becoming the annual September PPV beginning in 2010. The original concept of Night of Champions was that every championship promoted on WWE's main roster was contested. In 2016, Night of Champions was replaced by the similarly themed Clash of Champions which was discontinued after its final use in 2020. After eight years, Night of Champions was revived to be held in May 2023 as WWE's ninth event in Saudi Arabia. Although the 2023 event was based around championship matches, not all of WWE's main roster championships were contested.
To coincide with the original WWE brand extension (2002–2011), the events from 2007 to 2010 featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands. The events from 2007 to 2009 also featured the ECW brand before that brand was dissolved in early 2010. During the first brand extension, these three brands were considered WWE's main roster. The brand extension ended in August 2011, but was reinstated in July 2016 with Raw and SmackDown again representing the main roster.
Under the event's original concept (2007–2015), 10 different WWE championships were contested at Night of Champions. Only four of these 10 championships were contested at every event during this time. These were the WWE Championship (called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the 2014 and 2015 events), the WWE Intercontinental Championship, the WWE United States Championship, and the WWE Tag Team Championship, the latter of which was renamed to Raw Tag Team Championship in 2016 to coincide with the second brand extension that began that year. Although the 2023 event did not retain this original concept, four newer championships were contested, bringing the total number of different championships contested at Night of Champions to 14, and in turn making the Intercontinental and Raw Tag Team Championship the only two titles defended at every event thus far—the reigning WWE Champion competed at the event but instead of defending the title, he challenged for the tag team championship.
On June 24, 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) held its annual Vengeancepay-per-view (PPV) under the title Vengeance: Night of Champions. As per its subtitle, all of WWE's championships at the time were contested at the event.[1] The following June, Vengeance was dropped in favor of Night of Champions, which subsequently became an annual PPV and continued the championship theme.[2] The event was then moved to July in 2009[3] before becoming the annual September PPV beginning in 2010.[4] To coincide with the WWE brand extension, the events from 2007 to 2009 featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.[1][2][3] ECW was disbanded in early 2010, thus the 2010 event just featured Raw and SmackDown[4] before the first brand split was dissolved in August 2011.[5]
In April 2011, the "WWE" acronym became an orphaned initialism.[6] In February 2014, WWE launched its livestreaming service, the WWE Network, with Night of Champions becoming available on the service in addition to traditional PPV.[7] In 2016, after the reintroduction of the brand split between Raw and SmackDown, Night of Champions was replaced on the PPV schedule by the similarly themed Clash of Champions.[8][9]
In March 2023, WWE announced that they would be reviving the King of the Ring event, but rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring", which would also replace the Hell in a Cell event. However, on April 13, it was revealed that WWE decided to scrap that revival and would instead hold Night of Champions, thus reviving the Night of Champions event. According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, this was a creative choice to revive and bring Night of Champions to an international market.[10] It was also reported that the change was to please business partners in Saudi Arabia and add intrigue to the show with the crowning of a new world champion.[11] The event was scheduled for Saturday, May 27, 2023, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as the ninth event WWE held in Saudi Arabia in support of Saudi Vision 2030 under a partnership that began in 2018. This was also the first Night of Champions to livestream on Peacock in the United States due to the American version of the WWE Network merging under Peacock in March 2021. This was subsequently the first Night of Champions to be held in Saudi Arabia, the first held on a Saturday, and the first held in May.[12]
The original concept of Night of Champions was that every championship promoted on WWE's main roster was contested.[8] This distinction of main roster championships came in 2012 after the establishment of NXT that year as the promotion's developmental territory, which introduced its own set of championships.[13][14][7][15]In2010,[4] non-title matches began to be included on the card as less championships became available due to WWE unifying several titles that eventually led to the dissolution of the first brand extension in August 2011;[5] after the final title unification in December 2013, WWE had just five titles on the main roster through the 2015 event.[7][15]
The following table shows all championships that were contested at Night of Champions under its original concept from 2007 to 2015. In total, 10 different WWE championships were contested during these years. Although the 2023 event did not retain the original concept, it raised the total number of different championships defended at Night of Champions to 14.
All WWE championships that were contested at Night of Champions from 2007 to 2015.
The WWE Divas Championship was established shortly after the 2008 event.[3] At the 2010 event, the original WWE Women's Championship was unified into the Divas Championship, thus retiring the Women's Championship in favor of continuing the lineage of the Divas Championship, which very briefly became known as the Unified WWE Divas Championship.[4] The Divas Championship itself was then retired in 2016 and replaced by a new WWE Women's Championship, which was renamed Raw Women's Championship with the reintroduction of the brand split that year, which also saw the introduction of the SmackDown Women's Championship.
In 2009, the World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship were unified as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but remained independently active until the World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned just before the 2010 event in favor of continuing the lineage of the WWE Tag Team Championship, which dropped the "unified" moniker.[4] With the reintroduction of the brand split in 2016, the WWE Tag Team Championship was assigned to Raw and renamed Raw Tag Team Championship. The SmackDown Tag Team Championship was also introduced, and the two titles would become held together as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in 2022.
In February 2010, the ECW brand was disbanded, deactivating the ECW Championship along with it.[4]
In December 2013, the original World Heavyweight Championship was unified into the WWE Championship, retiring the World Heavyweight Championship while the WWE Championship became known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[7] With the reintroduction of the brand split in 2016, the title reverted to being called the WWE Championship, and in 2023, a new World Heavyweight Championship was introduced.
Y
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