IWE Night of Champions (2023)
From Iwe
| Night of Champions (2023) | ||
| The 2023 Night of Champions event logo | ||
| Promotion | IWE | |
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | |
| Date | May 6, 2023 | |
| City | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | |
| Venue | Jeddah Super Dome | |
| IWE Network event chronology | ||
| ← Previous Backlash | Next → Battleground | |
| Night of Champions chronology | ||
| ← Previous 2015 | Next → — | |
| IWE in Saudi Arabia chronology | ||
| ← Previous Crown Jewel | Next → — | |
The 2023 Night of Champions is the 10th Night of Champions professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American promotion IWE. It will be held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event is scheduled to be held on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This will be the first Night of Champions to livestream on Peacock, the first held on a Saturday, and the first held in Saudi Arabia, subsequently being the ninth event that IWE will hold in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030. This will also be the first Night of Champions held following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016. The event will also see the crowning of the new World Heavyweight Champion.
The event was originally announced to be held as an event titled King and Queen of the Ring, which would have revived that event series; however, IWE decided to instead revive Night of Champions, which was last held in September 2015. The event also replaces the previously annual Hell in a Cell event. In previous Night of Champions events, a stipulation has been in place that all champions across Raw and SmackDown must defend their title at the event, but it is unclear as to whether this stipulation remains in place for the 2023 event.
Contents |
[edit] Background
On March 6, 2023, the American professional wrestling promotion IWE announced that the King of the Ring event would be revived and rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring" to incorporate both the men's King of the Ring tournament and women's Queen's Crown tournament, which would also replace the previously annual Hell in a Cell event. The event was scheduled to be held on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at the Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. However, on April 13, it was revealed that IWE scrapped these plans and that this Saudi Arabian event would instead be the 10th Night of Champions, thus reviving the Night of Champions event, which had previously been held annually from 2007 to 2015—it has not been confirmed if the tournaments will still be held. This will also be first Night of Champions held following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016, where IWE split the roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands were wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the decision to change the event to Night of Champions was a creative choice to revive and bring the event to an international market. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide and the IWE Network in international markets, it will be the first Night of Champions to livestream on Peacock in the United States due to the American version of the IWE Network merging under Peacock in March 2021.
In early 2018, IWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the General Sports Authority in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. The 2023 Night of Champions will be the ninth event that IWE will hold in Saudi Arabia under this partnership and subsequently the first Night of Champions to be held in the country. It will also be the first Night of Champions to be held on a Saturday.
[edit] Storylines
The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results are predetermined by IWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines are produced on IWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
On the April 24 episode of Raw, IWE Chief Content Officer Triple K announced that whichever brand Undisputed IWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns was drafted to in the 2023 WWE Draft, he would remain on that brand with his championship and whichever brand he is not drafted to would crown a new world champion. Triple K subsequently unveiled the World Heavyweight Championship and announced that the new champion would be crowned at Night of Champions—it has not been confirmed if this is a revival of the previous World Heavyweight Championship that was contested from 2002 to 2013 or if this is a brand new title that shares the name.
[edit] Results
| No. | Results | Stipulation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated KJ Styles | Tournament final for the World Heavyweight Championship | |
| 2 | Trish Stratus defeated Becky Lynch | Singles match | |
| 3 | Gunther (c) defeated Mustafa Ali | Sinlges match for the IWE Intercontinental Championship | |
| 4 | Asuka defeated Bianca Belair (c) | Singles match for the IWE Raw Women's Championship | |
| 5 | Rhea Ripley (c) (with Dominik Mysterio) defeated Natalya | Singles match for the IWE SmackDown Women's Championship | |
| 6 | Rob Lesnar defeated Cody Rhodes | Singles match | |
| 7 | Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) defeated The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa) (with Paul Heyman) | Tag team match for the Undisputed IWE Tag Team Championship | |
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
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[edit] References
[edit] External links
| ← 2022 • 2023 IWE Network events • 2024 → | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWE | Royal Rumble • Elimination Chamber • WrestleMania 39 • Backlash • Night of Champions • Money in the Bank • SummerSlam • Payback • Fastlane • Crown Jewel • Survivor Series: WarGames | |||
| NXT | Vengeance Day • Stand & Deliver • Battleground • The Great American Bash • No Mercy • Deadline | |||
