First event Vengeance (2001) Promotion WWE | Last event Night of Champions (2015) | |
Other name(s) Vengeance (2001–2006, 2011)
Vengeance: Night of Champions (2007)
Night of Champions (2008–2015) Event gimmick All active WWE championships are defended Brand(s) Raw (2002; 2004–2010); SmackDown (2002–2003; 2007–2010); ECW (2007–2009) | ||
Night of Champions was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by professional wrestling promotion WWE. The event was previously known under the name Vengeance, with the inaugural event taking place on December 9, 2001 and replacing the regularly scheduled WWE Armageddon for that year. The 2002 event featured the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The event was made exclusive to the SmackDown brand in 2003, and in 2004 it was made exclusive to the Raw brand. In 2007, following WrestleMania, all PPV events became tri-branded. Vengeance took over WWF Fully Loaded's scheduled date in July 2002 and later moved to June in 2005, switching schedules with The Great American Bash. Night of Champions took over as the June pay-per-view event in 2008 dropping the Vengeance name that themed the same name in 2007 with Vengeance: Night of Champions, moved back to July in 2009 and in 2010, the event moved to September. In 2016, Night of Champions was replaced on the PPV schedule by Clash of Champions. Though the concept of Clash of Champions is similar, it is not a direct continuation of Night of Champions.
Contents
Name change
The 2007 event was promoted as Vengeance: Night of Champions and featured all WWE titles being defended. In 2008, the event dropped the Vengeance name and continued to promote as Night of Champions, later moving to September in 2010. In 2011, WWE scheduled both a Night of Champions and Vengeance event where the latter name would replace WWE Bragging Rights on the October 2011 event card while Night of Champions retained its original slot. In 2012, the Vengeance name was removed from the scheduled event calendar for that year. For many years, the 2001-07 Vengeance and Night of Champions events were considered a continuation of each other but as of 2016, WWE considers the 2007 Vengeance: Night of Champions as the only connection between the two events as it is listed on both Vengeance and Night of Champions history pages. On the archives of their website, WWE Vengeance 2001-07 and 2011 are listed under the Vengeance chronology and Night of Champions is now considered as taking place from 2007-2015. Because of the direct link of the events from the 2007 crossover name, this page reflects both events.
Concept
Starting in 2007, the concept of this pay-per-view is that all WWE titles are defended. Starting in 2010, non-title matches were also included on the card.
In previous years, ten titles that have been defended at the pay-per-view include:
History
Night of Champions was a pay-per-view event consisting of a main event and undercard that feature championship matches and other various matches. The first event was produced as a pay-per-view event for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the former name of WWE. The inaugural event took place on December 9, 2001 under the name Vengeance at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California and aired live on PPV.
In 2002, WWF was court ordered to change their name, which resulted in the promotion changing its name to WWE. Earlier in the year, WWF held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown, and the ECW brand was added in 2006. Before the draft, matches featured wrestlers from the roster without any limitations; after the draft, matches only consisted of wrestlers from their distinctive brands. The first Vengeance event to be produced under the WWE banner and with roster limitations was Vengeance (2002), which took place on July 21, 2002. The following year, WWE announced that PPV events, excluding WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble, would be made exclusive to each brand; Vengeance was made exclusive to the Smackdown! brand in 2003 and in 2004 was made exclusive to the Raw brand. After three years of being produced as a brand exclusive event, Vengeance (2006) was the final Vengeance event that was brand exclusive, as WWE announced that PPV events from April 2007 onwards would feature all three brands of WWE.
In 2016, Night of Champions was replaced on the PPV schedule by Clash of Champions.