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Crown Jewel overdelivered in November.
Will Night of Champions do the same?
Like most WWE pay-per-views right now, it is all about The Bloodline and Cody Rhodes.
Throw in a very fun Trish Stratus-Becky Lynch feud and a new World Heavyweight champion and this show is shaping up to be a good one.
Roman Reigns has a chance to leave Night of Champions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday (1 p.m., Peacock) holding four different championships as he and Solo Sikoa try to beat undisputed tag champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
Win or lose, the disconnect and frustration between the Tribal Chief and The Usos could come to a boil as a result of this show.
We have seen Rhodes wrestle with a legitimately torn pec.
Now he will try to attempt what seems like the not-so-smart task of trying to beat Brock Lesnar with a storyline broken arm
That can’t end well, can it?
With plenty at stake, The Post’s Joseph Staszewski does his best to predict what will go down at WWE Night of Champions.
Becky Lynch over Trish Stratus
I can see a scenario where Straus cheats to win and rubs it in Lynch’s face all the way to a rematch at Money in the Bank.
But unless they bring Lita back into the fold, I don’t know how much more mileage WWE can get out of Lynch and Stratus given how good and heated their contract signing was.
So we get an important win for The Man in what could be the start of a big summer for her.
Gunther (c) over Mustafa Ali to retain the Intercontinental championship
Ali was the perfect pick for this match given his ultra-underdog status and how big of babyface he will be in Saudi Araba.
That and the fact he and Gunther have a chance to absolutely tear it up.
Ali, however, won’t be taking The Ring General’s title as that will be saved likely for someone else on a bigger show with a bigger build.
Rhea Ripley (c) over Natalya to retain the SmackDown women’s championship
WWE referred to Natalya as a “gatekeeper” very early in the build to his match, which is exactly what she is in this instance.
She is a solid veteran to get Ripley’s title run started.
Natalya leaned into it perfectly in a social media video, saying that Ripley will leave Night of Champions at least respecting her after belittling her a little bit for not being on her level in the past weeks.
Bianca Belair (c) over Asuka to retain the Raw women’s championship
If WWE didn’t have Asuka go over Belair on the bigger stage of WrestleMania, it’s hard to see it happening here — unless they just wanted to get The EST to the odd record of being the longest-reigning women’s champion of the modern era.
WWE left themselves very thin on top talent to face Belair on SmackDown, so even if she wins, this may not even be the end of this feud.
Brock Lesnar over Cody Rhodes
With how much of this week’s Raw centered on the severity of the arm injury Lesnar inflicted on Rhodes, it feels like WWE is building in an excuse for the American Nightmare to lose while getting toughness points for just showing up to fight.
It will lead to the completion of the trilogy either at Money in the Bank or SummerSlam.
Keep an eye out for Triple H as the closing segment to Raw with Rhodes left the door open for so many storyline possibilities.
Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens (c) over Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa to retain the Undisputed Tag Team championships
The story heading into this is all about the fragile state of The Bloodline after Reigns basically buried his cousins The Usos and will now try to do with Sikoa what they couldn’t get done twice.
The Usos can’t seem to do anything right at the moment and WWE doesn’t need Reigns holding anymore titles.
Jimmy and Jey try to help, but end up costing Reigns and Sikoa the match or as a DQ to turn the heat up even more.
Seth Rollins over AJ Styles to win the World Heavyweight championship
Rollins feels like the obvious choice to win the tournament and the title for a number of reasons.
One, the returning World Heavyweight championship is a Raw title and Rollins was drafted to Raw while Styles is on SmackDown.
Two, with Rollins filming the latest Captain America movie, WWE has spent a lot of time on TV with his interview Corey Graves, with plenty of talk centering on Roman Reigns as a hint of bigger plans down the road.
Third, Rollins’ DQ win over Reigns at the 2021 Royal Rumble and the heights his character has reached will make the belt feel less secondary after he and Styles tear it up.
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