Jul 27 2009
Night Of Champions 2009 Aftermath Thoughts
I actually got my predictions right for once. Two diva matches to talk about. Maria was also alongside Dolph Ziggler for his title match against Rey Mysterio. I will put off talking about until another time. Just focusing on the title matches tonight.
The Women’s Championship match was up first on the card. Melina faced the Champion, Michelle McCool. McCool was pretty vicious in some parts of this match. Picking up on the character portion of her performance will not hurt her. It was a good back and forth match. McCool manages to get the win to continue her reign. Melina does not look weak from the loss. In a side note, when Vengeance was first evolving into Night of Champions two years ago, Melina lost. Undefeated/defeated streaks at pay-per-views interest me. They sometime provide an obvious hint of what the outcome may be for a match. Does the WWE plan on keeping a defeated streak on Melina for a while, or is it all just random coincidence? In any case, Michelle McCool defeats Melina to retain the Women’s Championship.
Before I go into the second match, Maryse had a backstage segment with The Miz before her title defense. She slammed Miz for being a loser by not winning his match. I hope Maryse remembers those words right now.
Maryse and Mickie James battled for the Diva’s Championship. It is interesting to note that this match came right after a match featuring Triple H, Randy Orton, and John Cena fighting for the WWE Championship. This divas match was obviously meant for a cooldown period for the fans, who would have spent most of their energy in the previous match and still had a big match between Jeff Hardy and CM Punk in a while. Aside from the fact that knowing that may be interesting to some, I bring this up because I see some news sites reporting the matches of the event and continuously bringing up the lack of a fan response in this match. Beyond exaggerating it a bit too much, it would be nice if they offered the explanation why the fans were as they were and why the match was placed in that spot. The WWE knew what it was doing. Anyway, the match was a little more competitive than I expected. Maryse was still doing a bit of her antics for a while, but it was not too bad. The most notable spot of what I just mentioned may be Maryse trying to use the hairspray/perfume in the match. Mickie managed to get it away from her and looked to use it, but the ref took it away from her, giving Maryse a small advantage and continuing the use of the symbolic weapon that Mickie has felt twice. To the lovers of just pure competition, it may take you out of the match and make you hate it. In terms of telling a story, which pro wrestling is about, it was a nice thing to include that did not take away too much time from the match and did show some continuity to the character Maryse has been building and the feud between the two. There were actually a good amount of near falls as well. But as I said when I previewed this match, had Maryse really had the solid skills many may dream she has, more might have been done in this match. In the end, Mickie James hits her DDT to capture the butterfly title. What was that Maryse had said to Miz earlier? Maybe these two will still be hooking up in the near future? Mickie James defeated Maryse to win the Diva’s Championship.
Just a few final notes. First, since I talked about Melina possibly building a losing streak at this pay-per-view, how about Mickie’s streak? She has won at Night of Champions for the second year in a row? Will that mean anything? Will the WWE work on that in years to come in some angle? It may sound like idiotic analysis now, but Undertaker’s undefeated streak at Wrestlemania was not pushed as an angle or huge accomplishment at his first few Wrestlemanias. Did anyone, including Vince McMahon, really have such a huge thing planned so far in advance? Second, the WWE may try to articulate Mickie’s win as some huge piece of history by becoming a diva who has held both the Diva’s Championship and Women’s Championship, treating it as a “privileged class” with McCool, but it does fail in comparison to being the first to do it. In time, Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim, Maryse, and others may join the elite group, much like men who have held both of the World titles in the WWE. The fan community cannot ignore that it was always meant for McCool to truly make history. Mickie James still accomplished something. She is the first Women’s Champion to win the Diva’s Championship, and that does sound better, but it fails in comparison to McCool doing it first, in terms of making history. Some say second is best, but not always. Whatever people may argue or believe when talking about what Mickie James accomplished, she still accomplished something. MICKIE FREAKIN JAMES IS A CHAMPION AGAIN! 
the fact that they made maryse win in that six diva tag match kinda gave it away. when someone is on a losing streak and they are going to get a title shot they end up winning. that happens a lot in the wwe.
and it’s funny how you put at the end mickie james is a freakin champion again!
That is the TYPICAL WWE style, but you really cannot take it for granted. And it goes beyond just losing streaks as well. It is about who has the momentum, whether through wins, attacks after matches or in promos, humiliating the opponent, and so on. Michelle McCool mowed right over Melina recently to win the title. Mickie James herself has been mowed over by Beth Phoenix twice going into big title matches. The Smackdown divas involved in the Survivor Series tag last year were the ones looking weak going into the match, they still lost. JBL went into Wrestlemania this year against Mysterio having already lost to him in a non-title match just 6 days before. He still lost. Can’t take the booking for granted, but it is obvious a lot of the time in the WWE, like you said.