Night of Champions (2009) - Background

Background

Night of Champions featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, ECW on Syfy and WWE Superstars—World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they follow a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers were 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.

The main rivalry from SmackDown heading into Night of Champions was between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy in their conflict over the World Heavyweight Championship. One month prior to the show, at Extreme Rules, Punk invoked the guaranteed title match he earned by winning the Money in the Bank ladder match against Hardy; he defeated him, and won the World Heavyweight title. The two had constant confrontations in the following weeks over the legitimacy of Punk's reign before they met at The Bash in a match that saw Punk get disqualified for striking the referee, leading to Hardy attacking Punk for what he saw as dodging competition (a title cannot change hands on a disqualification). On the July 2 episode of Superstars it came to light that Punk had suffered a storyline eye injury. Punk's rebuttal to Hardy's accusation was that he struck the referee due to his inability to clearly see a target. To clear up any 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.

The Raw brand was represented by Randy Orton defending his WWE Championship. After defeating Triple H in a 3 Stages of Hell match at The Bash, Orton was without a contender for the championship, so on the June 29 episode of Raw, it was announced by the special guest host of the week, as well as onscreen matchmaker, Batista, that the title would be defended at Night of Champions against the winner of a single-elimination tournament. The semifinals commenced that night with Triple H defeating Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and John Cena defeating The Miz. Triple H and Cena faced each other on the following week's episode of Raw, only to see Orton's protégés, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, interfere in the match and attack both men. As a result, it was announced Orton would defend the title against both Triple H and Cena in a triple threat match.

After winning the ECW Championship at Extreme Rules, Tommy Dreamer had been involved in a scripted rivalry with perennial ally, rival, and former ECW Champion, Christian. The former champion was given a chance to get back into the title picture by having a match with Vladimir Kozlov to determine the number one contender. On the July 9 episode of ECW on Syfy, Christian won the match, thus advancing to Night of Champions to challenge Dreamer.

Edge and Chris Jericho had won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship at The Bash in a triple threat tag team match from incumbent champions, The Colóns, and Rhodes and DiBiase (collectively known as The Legacy). Two weeks following the event on the July 6 episode of Raw, the special guest host for the night, Ted DiBiase (Sr.), announced that The Legacy would challenge Edge and Jericho for the titles. In the coming week on Raw, it came to light that Edge had legitimately torn his Achilles tendon, which required surgery, as well as sidelining Edge for a projected several months. It was announced on the next week's episode of Raw, Jericho had a storyline contractual loophole, which allowed him to choose a new partner to hold the titles with him if Edge were to be injured, thus allowing him to defend the titles at Night of Champions.

Following a defense of the WWE Intercontinental Championship on the July 10 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Rey Mysterio was attacked by Dolph Ziggler. The following week on WWE Superstars, Mysterio and Ziggler had a verbal confrontation over what transpired, leading to the announcement of Mysterio defending the Intercontinental title against Ziggler at the pay-per-view.