10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Night Of Champions
1. Chris Benoit Was Supposed To Win The ECW Title (2007)
The very first Night of Champions show (part of the Vengeance PPV line) was an interesting concept - in one single show, all of the company's titles would be on the line. Given that there were nine championships in WWE at the time, that wasn't the sort of thing that happened every month.
Among the belts up for grabs was the ECW Championship, which had been vacated when Bobby Lashley was drafted to Raw. A four-man tournament was held to crown a new champion, and CM Punk defeated Marcus Cor Von and Chris Benoit defeated Elijah Burke to advance to the finals.
The title match was scheduled for Night of Champions, but when the PPV aired, Benoit was a no-show. Johnny Nitro ended up taking his spot and defeating Punk, becoming the brand-new ECW Champion.
It wasn't until the next day that fans found out why Benoit was absent - over the course of a few days, he had killed his wife, his son, and himself. One of the worst tragedies in wrestling history had happened, and the industry would never be the same.
Today, the first Night of Champions - and especially the Punk-Nitro match - stands as a particularly uncomfortable reminder of a horrible series of events that had already happened and would soon come to light.