| Night of Champions (2009) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagline(s) | Every Championship Is On The Line | |||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | |||
| Date | July 26, 2009 | |||
| Attendance | 17,774[1] | |||
| Venue | Wachovia Center | |||
| City | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |||
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||||
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| Night of Champions chronology | ||||
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Night of Champions (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on July 26, 2009 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2] It was the third annual event under the Night of Champions name and the ninth annual event under the Vengeance/Night of Champions chronology. Similar to the previous two events, the concept of the show was that every championship in the company would be defended. It featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.[3] Eight matches were contested on the card.[4]
Night of Champions will have professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers from the Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and ECW on Sci Fi brands. Wrestlers will play a villain or a hero.[5] All wrestlers will be from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.[6]
The main rivalry from SmackDown for Night of Champions is between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy in their battle over the World Heavyweight Championship.[1] One month before the show, at Extreme Rules, Punk used his guaranteed title match he earned by winning the Money in the Bank ladder match against Hardy; he beat him, and won the World Heavyweight title.[7] The two had many confrontations about it which lead to The Bash and a match that saw Punk get disqualified for kicking the referee. Then, Hardy attacked Punk because Hardy thought Punk kicked the referee on purpose.[8] On the July 2 episode of Superstars fans were told that Punk had suffered a storyline eye injury.[9] Punk's reasoning to Hardy's accusation was that he kicked the referee on accident due to his inability to clearly see Jeff, who he was really trying to kick. To settle the dispute on to who the rightful champion was, SmackDown general manager, Theodore Long, announced another match between the two at Night of Champions, which was accepted by both competitors.[10]
Raw will be represented by Randy Orton defending the WWE Championship. After beating Triple H at The Bash,[11] Orton did not have a contender for the championship, so on the June 29 episode of Raw, special guest host of the week, as well as onscreen matchmaker, Batista, said that the title would be defended at Night of Champions against the winner of a single-elimination tournament. The first two matches of the four-person tournament were that night with Triple H beating Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and John Cena beating The Miz (Mike Mizanin).[12] Triple H and Cena wrestled each other the next week on Raw, but Orton's allies, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, interfered in the match, attacking both Cena and Triple H. Because of that, it was announced Orton would defend the title against both Triple H and Cena in a triple threat match.[13]