Night of Champions (2015)

The professional wrestling matches at Night of Champions featured professional wrestlers performing as characters. The card consisted of eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers.[4][5] Storylines between the characters played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown.

Sting faced Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This was his only title match and pay-per-view main event in WWE, as well as his final match in the promotion.

At SummerSlam, Seth Rollins defeated John Cena to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and win Cena's United States Championship.[6] On the August 24 episode of Raw, The Authority attempted to present Rollins with a statue for winning, but instead Sting made his return to the WWE for the first time since the night after WrestleMania 31 and attacked Rollins, challenging Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by raising it over his head.[7] Triple H then scheduled Rollins to defend the WWE World title against Sting at Night of Champions.[8] On the August 31 edition of Raw, Cena invoked his rematch clause to face Rollins for the United States Championship at Night of Champions.[9]

At SummerSlam, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose defeated Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper.[6] On the August 24 episode of Raw, during a rematch between both teams, Braun Strowman made his WWE debut, aligning with Wyatt and Harper and attacking Reigns and Ambrose.[7] On the August 31 episode of Raw, Strowman made his in-ring debut, defeating Ambrose by disqualification.[9] On September 5, a Six-man tag team match pitting Wyatt, Harper and Strowman against Reigns, Ambrose and a partner of their choice was scheduled for Night of Champions.

At SummerSlam, Dolph Ziggler and Rusev fought to a double countout.[6] On the September 7 episode of Raw, a rematch was scheduled for Night of Champions.[10]

At SummerSlam, The New Day defeated The Prime Time Players, The Lucha Dragons, and Los Matadores in a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.[6] The next night on Raw, after The New Day defeated The Lucha Dragons, The Dudley Boyz returned to WWE and attacked The New Day.[7] The next week on Raw, The Dudleyz defeated The New Day.[9] The next week on Raw, The New Day were scheduled to defend the titles against The Prime Time Players the next week, and were successful,[10] thus setting up a title match between The New Day and The Dudleyz for Night of Champions.

Kevin Owens interrupted Intercontinental Champion Ryback's interview on the September 7 episode of Raw[10] and attacked the champion on the September 10 episode of SmackDown during a lumberjack match against Seth Rollins.[11] On the September 14 episode of Raw, Ryback was scheduled to defend the title against Owens at Night of Champions.[12]

At SummerSlam, PCB (Paige, Charlotte and Becky Lynch) defeated Team Bella (Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Alicia Fox) and Team B.A.D. (Naomi, Sasha Banks and Tamina) in a Three team elimination match.[6] On the August 31 edition of Raw, three Beat the Clock challenge matches were held to determine a new number one contender to face Nikki for the WWE Divas Championship at Night of Champions. Lynch defeated Fox in 3:21, Charlotte defeated Brie in 1:40, and Paige and Banks wrestled to a time limit draw, giving Charlotte the win and the title shot.[9] On the September 7 episode of Raw, Charlotte was awarded a title match against Nikki the following week.[10] During the match Nikki switched places with Brie, so Charlotte pinned Brie instead. Stephanie McMahon decided that Charlotte could not win the title by pinning Brie Bella but scheduled a rematch for Night of Champions with the stipulation that should Nikki be disqualified or counted out, she would lose the title.[12] With this win, Nikki Bella became WWE Divas Champion at 294 days.

At SummerSlam, Neville and Stephen Amell defeated Stardust and King Barrett.[6] On the September 3 edition of SmackDown, Neville was scheduled to face Stardust, but The Ascension attacked Neville and allied with Stardust, preventing the match from occurring.[13] On the September 17 episode of Raw, Neville allied with The Lucha Dragons and the trio attacked Stardust and The Ascension.[12] A match pitting Neville and The Lucha Dragons against Stardust and The Ascension was then scheduled for the Night of Champions Kickoff pre-show.

Following the event, WWE confirmed that Sting sustained an injury during his match with Rollins.[14][15] Sting injured his neck when he received a powerbomb onto a turnbuckle.[16][17] The title match with Rollins would be Sting's final match in WWE, as on April 2, 2016, during his WWE Hall of Fame induction speech, Sting announced his retirement.[18] Despite retiring, Sting would later debut in rival promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in December 2020 at Winter Is Coming, with a match scheduled for AEW's Revolution pay-per-view in March 2021.[19]

The following night on Raw, "Corporate Kane" returned and resumed his position as Director of Operations, seemingly oblivious to his attack on Rollins at Night of Champions. Following a series of confrontations, Kane received a title match against Rollins at Hell in a Cell, which Rollins won. As a result, Kane lost his position as Director of Operations.

On the September 21 edition of Raw, when Charlotte was celebrating her victory over Nikki Bella at Night of Champions, her teammate Paige went on a rant about how there is no Divas Revolution, telling Charlotte the reason she won the Divas Championship was because of her father Ric Flair and telling Becky Lynch that she is irrelevant in PCB, thus turning heel in the process.

Later in the same show, Randy Orton joined forces with Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose as he attacked The Wyatt Family.

Ryback invoked his rematch clause for the Intercontinental Championship against Kevin Owens on the October 1 episode of SmackDown, where Ryback would win by count out, meaning Owens retained the championship. The two had a match at Hell in a Cell, where Owens defeated Ryback via pinfall to retain the title and end the feud.

Before Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns revealed Chris Jericho as their mystery partner, a fan managed to jump the barricade and enter the ring without getting caught by security.[20] WWE would later release a statement on this situation, stating that "WWE takes the safety of our performers very seriously, and any fan entering the ring area will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."[21]

• Night of Champions Official Website