Randy Orton and Rusev record wins over formidable opposition
Tuesday 23 September 2014 18:37, UK
A grand total of three titles changed hands at Night of Champions, with AJ Lee, The Miz and one of the most bizarre tag teams of recent memory leaving Nashville with gold.
Lee coped with the frantic pace of a Triple Threat match against champion Paige and a newly-determined Nikki Bella to scoop the Divas garland for the third time in her career.
Plus, The Miz, thanks to his loyal stunt double, became a four-time Intercontinental Champion, and Gold and Stardust pinched the WWE Tag Team Titles from the always-effervescent Usos.
Lee made her intentions of victory pretty clear in the opening stages of her match, refusing to kiss the hand of ‘frenemy’ Paige, instead opting to smash the Brit’s face into the canvas.
And she showed her canny side when she broke up Bella’s pin attempt on Paige, yanked the Total Divas outside the ring, and forced the champion to tap out to the Black Widow.
The Miz, meanwhile, came out on top in his high-octane duel with fellow Clevelander Dolph Ziggler, though only after his look-a-like took a boot to the face from the crowd-pleasing Show-Off.
The Awesome One was accompanied to the ring by Damien Miz-dow, while Ziggler had his near namesake R-Ziggler for moral support and the two assistants soon came to blows.
R-Ziggler sent Miz-dow scarpering to the back but when the latter returned and received a Superkick from the Intercontinental Champion, The Miz profited by rolling up Ziggler for the win.
Gold and Stardust, however, were dominated for much of their encounter with Jimmy and Jey Uso but a piece of quick thinking from Stardust led to the twinkling tandem prevailing.
Jey Uso seemingly had the artist formerly known as Cody Rhodes in peril as he leapt to the top rope but as he tried to administer a splash, Stardust raised his knees and pinned the Samoan-American.
Elsewhere, Dublin grappler Sheamus retained the United States strap when he floored Swiss Superman Cesaro with his patented Brogue Kick after a string of near misses.
Plus, Randy Orton overcame Chris Jericho, and Rusev’s powerful performance against Mark Henry ended when The Super-Athlete submitted The World’s Strongest Man to the Accolade.
Missed WWE Night of Champions? Catch it again at 9pm on Monday on Sky Sports 3.
