Vengeance: Night of Champions

Vengeance: Night of Champions was the seventh yearly professional wrestling pay-per-view event by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) with the name Vengeance. It featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The event took place on June 24, 2007 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Every match on the card was contested for a championship. This event was notable for being on the weekend of the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide case. Benoit, who was originally booked to wrestle CM Punk for the vacant ECW World Championship, did not come to the event due to "personal reasons."

The main event featured the Raw brand. John Cena defended the WWE Championship against Mick Foley, Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton, and King Booker. Cena won the match and kept the WWE Championship after pinning Foley following an FU. The main match from the SmackDown brand was a "Last Chance match" for the World Heavyweight Championship between Edge and Batista, which Edge won by countout. The main match from the ECW brand was CM Punk versus Johnny Nitro for the vacant ECW World Championship, which Nitro won by pinfall after performing a corkscrew neckbreaker from the middle rope.

Background

The main feud on the Raw brand going into the event was between John Cena, Bobby Lashley, King Booker, Mick Foley, and Randy Orton over the WWE Championship. The feud began when Lashley was drafted to the Raw brand and stripped of the ECW World Championship. After being stripped of the title, Lashley began to pursue the WWE Championship. On the June 18 episode of Raw, Foley, Orton, Booker, and Lashley all said why they deserve to be the number-one contender to the WWE Championship. Cena also said who he believed deserved to be the number-one contender to the championship. Following this, Interim General Manager Jonathan Coachman announced that all five men would compete for the title in a match called the "WWE Championship Challenge" at Vengeance.

The main feud going into Vengeance on the SmackDown brand was between Edge and Batista over the World Heavyweight Championship. Their match was a rematch from their Steel cage match at One Night Stand, the pay-per-view three weeks before Vengeance, where Edge won by escaping the cage. On the June 8 episode of SmackDown, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that Edge would be defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista in a "Last Chance" match at Vengeance. On the June 22 episode of SmackDown!, Batista and Ric Flair beat Edge and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). During the match, Flair and MVP brawled outside the ring, leaving Edge on his own against Batista. Batista gained the pinfall after giving a Batista Bomb to Edge.

The feud between The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) and Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch began at Backlash. At the event, The Hardys beat Cade and Murdoch to keep the World Tag Team Championship. At the next event, Judgment Day, Matt and Jeff beat Cade and Murdoch again to keep the title. On the June 4 episode of Raw, Cade and Murdoch beat The Hardys to win the title.

Results

Tournament brackets
(*) – Johnny Nitro was an event-day replacement added by WWE after Chris Benoit was a no-show, with the official statement a "family emergency".  It was later discovered Benoit's CTE-related murders had taken place that weekend.

Related pages
 List of WWE pay-per-view events
 WWE Night of Champions

References

Other websites
 Vengeance: Night of Champions official site 

2007 in professional wrestling
Sports in Houston, Texas
WWE Night of Champions
2007 in American television
2000s in Houston, Texas
2007 in Texas