Early Night of Champions predictions

CM Punk vs Axel

Night of Champions is just over two weeks away, and thus far, only three matches have been announced, with at least three more title matches and maybe one or two other to be announced between now and then.

Since the two big matches of the card were the first two to be made official, I thought I’d take a look at the card thus far and give a few early predictions:

2-on-1 Handicap Elimination Match: Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman vs CM Punk

Despite the fact that the IC Champion is involved in this match, so far, his title has not been put up for grabs. This is unusual, given that NoC is always advertised as the one night of the year when all titles are on the line.

That may change before the PPV happens, but for now, we’ll look at this for what it is, and quite frankly, it’s hard to predict a winner.

On one hand, Punk has lost two out of three of his last PPV matches and could certainly use a win. On the other, WWE is really behind Axel right now, and a win over Punk would be even bigger than the other way around.

Now, with the elimination aspect, it makes it even more difficult. For now, I’ll play it safe and say that somehow, Axel and Heyman are winning this match, with Axel likely getting eliminated, only to come back out later and cost Punk the match.

World Championship: Alberto Del Rio (Champion) vs Rob Van Dam

While I’m not a big fan of either guy, I would much rather see RVD win here. Since returning to WWE, he has looked good, and his performances are not nearly as formulaic or ‘going through the motions’ as they were during his time in TNA, which seems to indicate that he’s enjoying his job again.

However, WWE is hell-bent on pushing ADR as a major player, despite the fact that no one outside of ADR’s family cares about him. When you also factor in the rumour that Ricardo Rodriguez may turn on RVD and rejoin ADR in this match, most signs point to the championship being retained.

However, I could see RVD winning via DQ or count-out, resulting in him having a reason for a rematch in October.

WWE Championship: Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton (Champion)

Orton immediately won the title after Bryan did, cashing in his MITB briefcase. The idea behind this was Bryan would be viewed as more effective as the hunter rather than the hunted, and likely means he will be WWE Champion again in the very near future.

Right now, Orton is just getting comfortable in becoming a heel once again, and to keep that momentum going, he will likely retain the title here.

Much like the World title match, there is a strong possibility he will get himself DQ’ed or counted out, leading to a rematch in October, likely in a Hell in a Cell match so Triple H and the Shield won’t interfere (which we could also happening on this night).