Roddy Piper was right

"Just when you think you've got all the answers, I change the questions!"---Roddy Piper, sometime in the 1980's, before he came to WWE.

The results of Night of Champions, in fact, may prove again how much of a prophet Piper actually was more than 25 years ago when he first used that line while working for Georgia Championship Wrestling.

I assumed that Triple H would win the WWE title, simply because it'd be an appropriate birthday present for the man, as he turns 40 this week. It wasn't to be. Having wrestled and lost earlier, Ted DiBiase, Jr. & Cody Rhodes, the other 2/3 of Legacy, interfered in the 3-way, which otherwise constitutes a DQ against champion Randy Orton. Orton, then, is on borrowed time.

I commented on another message board that CM Punk, I thought, had wrapped up one of Dave Meltzer's end-of-year awards for "best on interviews". So what happens? Punk's 2nd world title reign ends after just 7 weeks at the hands of Jeff Hardy. What that tells the internet community is that Hardy, with all of his issues, will in fact stick around, contrary to the rumors. Punk says all the right things in trying to "preach", if you will, to the "inattentive" masses supporting Hardy, stating a lot of facts, but even though he's on his 2nd tour of duty with WWE, Hardy still has some sort of seniority within the organization, plus the prospect of fighting his brother, Matt (currently on the DL), for the title down the line. They do see money in that.

Big Show was selected as Chris Jericho's partner to defend the tag titles vs. Legacy, but that meant erasing everything he'd done to move into contention for the US title, a belt he hasn't had in 5 years. What that says to me is that the creative team just didn't know what was the best option, and, even with Jericho contributing ideas, were stuck for a more appropriate answer. Show lucks into his first tag title run since 2005-06 (w/Kane), but this is a short-term deal at best.

On the whole, the ledger stands at 4-4 for Night of Champions. Average of late, but with room for improvement.

One more thing. Shaquille O'Neal is tonight's guest host, with actor Jeremy Piven (Entourage) on tap for next week. There may be more title changes afoot this week, so we'll wait & see.