WWE Night of Champions is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. The event originated in World Championship Wrestling in 2001 during the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro after the then-World Wrestling Federation acquired the assets of WCW along with the name; which would then be used for its inaugural event held in June 2007 and was a crossover with Vengeance titled Vengeance: Night of Champions. In 2008, Vengeance was dropped in favor of Night of Champions and it took over the June PPV slot. The event then moved to July in 2009 before becoming the annual September PPV beginning in 2010. The original concept of Night of Champions was that every championship promoted on WWE's main roster was contested. In 2016, Night of Champions was replaced by the similarly themed Clash of Champions which was discontinued after its final use in 2020. After eight years, Night of Champions was revived to be held in May 2023 as WWE's ninth event in Saudi Arabia. Although the 2023 event was based around championship matches, not all of WWE's main roster championships were contested. A Night of Champions event was not held in 2024, but scheduled to return in June 2025, also in Saudi Arabia as the 13th event in the Saudi Arabian partnership.
To coincide with the original WWE brand extension (2002–2011), the events from 2007 to 2010 featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands. The events from 2007 to 2009 also featured the ECW brand before that brand was dissolved in early 2010. During the first brand extension, these three brands were considered WWE's main roster. The brand extension ended in August 2011, but was reinstated in July 2016 with Raw and SmackDown again representing the main roster.
Under the event's original concept (2007–2015), 10 different WWE championships were contested at Night of Champions. Only four of these 10 championships were contested at every event during this time. These were the WWE Championship (called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the 2014 and 2015 events), the WWE Intercontinental Championship, the WWE United States Championship, and the WWE Tag Team Championship, the latter of which was renamed to Raw Tag Team Championship in 2016 to coincide with the second brand extension that began that year, and then the World Tag Team Championship in 2024. Although the 2023 event did not retain this original concept, four newer championships were contested, bringing the total number of different championships contested at Night of Champions to 14. The 2025 event would only have two championship matches as the event hosted the respective finals of the 2025 King and Queen of the Ring tournaments.
History
As the Monday Night War concluded, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the chief competitor to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed to WWE in 2002) had acquired the selected assets of WCW from then parent AOL Time Warner after all WCW programming was cancelled. WCW then announced that the final episode of Nitro on TNT would be held as Night of Champions, in which all WCW titles were on the line.
Six years later, on June 24, 2007, WWE held its 1st ever Vengeance pay-per-view (PPV) under the title Vengeance: Night of Champions. As per its subtitle, all of WWE's championships at the time were contested at the event. In February 2014, WWE launched its livestreaming service, the WWE Network, with Night of Champions becoming available on the service in addition to traditional PPV.
In March 2023, WWE announced that they would be reviving the King of the Ring event, but rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring", which would also replace the Hell in a Cell event. However, on April 13, it was revealed that WWE decided to scrap that revival and would instead hold Night of Champions, thus reviving the Night of Champions event. According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, this was a creative choice to revive and bring Night of Champions to an international market. It was also reported that the change was to please business partners in Saudi Arabia and add intrigue to the show with the crowning of a new world champion. The event was scheduled for Saturday, May 27, 2023, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as the ninth event WWE held in Saudi Arabia in support of Saudi Vision 2030 under a partnership that began in 2018. This was also the first Night of Champions to livestream on Peacock in the United States due to the American version of the WWE Network merging under Peacock in March 2021. This was subsequently the first Night of Champions to be held in Saudi Arabia, the first held on a Saturday, and the first held in May. An event was not held in 2024, but it was scheduled to return to Saudi Arabia in 2025, this time in Riyadh on Saturday, June 28, 2025, at the Kingdom Arena and it will be the 13th event that WWE will hold in Saudi Arabia. This will also be the first Night of Champions to livestream on Netflix in most international markets due to the WWE Network's merger under the service in those areas in January 2025.
Concept
The original concept of Night of Champions was that every championship promoted on WWE's main roster was contested.
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|3
|Night of Champions (2008)
|June 29, 2008
|Dallas, Texas
|American Airlines Center
|Triple H (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship
|
|-
|4
|Night of Champions (2009)
|July 26, 2009
|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|Wachovia Center
|CM Punk (c) vs. Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship
|
|-
|5
|Night of Champions (2010)
|September 19, 2010
|Rosemont, Illinois
|Allstate Arena
|Sheamus (c) vs. Wade Barrett vs. Chris Jericho vs. Edge vs. Randy Orton vs. John Cena in a Six-Pack Elimination Match for the WWE Championship
|
|-
|6
|Night of Champions (2011)
|September 18, 2011
|Buffalo, New York
|First Niagara Center
|Triple H vs. CM Punk in a No Disqualification match
|
|-
|7
|Night of Champions (2012)
|September 16, 2012
|Boston, Massachusetts
|TD Garden
|CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship
|
|-
|8
|Night of Champions (2013)
|September 15, 2013
|Detroit, Michigan
|Joe Louis Arena
|Randy Orton (c) vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship
|
|-
|9
|Night of Champions (2014)
|September 21, 2014
|Nashville, Tennessee
|Bridgestone Arena
|Brock Lesnar (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
|
|-
|10
|Night of Champions (2015)
|September 20, 2015
|Houston, Texas
|Toyota Center
|Seth Rollins (c) vs. Sting for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
|
|-
|11
|Night of Champions (2023)
|May 27, 2023
|Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
|Jeddah Super Dome
|Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) vs The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa) for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship
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| colspan="11" |
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See also
- List of current champions in WWE
- List of former championships in WWE