page_title: Night of Champions (2008)
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: Night of Champions (2008) / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: English: WWE wrestler Triple H at a live event on WWE Friday Night SmackDown in Orlando 2008.
context_page_description: Night of Champions (2008) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on June 29, 2008, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. It was the first annual event to be promoted solely under the Night of Champions name and the second annual event under the Night of Champions chronology. It starred wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. Like the previous year before, every match on the card was contested for a championship; three were won and five were retained.
  The main event was an interpromotional match for the WWE Championship between SmackDown representative, Triple H, and Raw representative, John Cena; Triple H won the match and retained the championship. The main match was also an interpromotional match for the World Heavyweight Championship between SmackDown representative, Edge, and Raw representative, Batista, which Edge won to retain the championship. The main match from the ECW brand was an interpromotional triple threat match for the ECW Championship, in which ECW representative, Mark Henry, defeated the champion and Raw representative, Kane, and SmackDown representative, The Big Show.
context_section_description: The event featured eight professional wrestling matches, performances with pre-determined outcomes between wrestlers with fictional personalities that are portrayed as real, were featured on the event's card. The buildup to the matches and the scenarios that took place before, during, and after the event were planned by WWE's creative staff. The event starred wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown and ECW brands – storyline expansions of the promotion where employees are assigned to wrestling brands under the WWE banner. Wrestlers portrayed either a villainous or fan favorite gimmick, as they followed a series of events which generally built tension, leading to a wrestling match.
  The main event scripted into Night of Champions on the Raw brand was between Triple H and John Cena over the WWE Championship. At the Royal Rumble, Cena won the Royal Rumble match, a multi-competitor match type in which wrestlers are eliminated until one is left and declared winner, where he earned the right to challenge for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XXIV. The next night on Raw, Cena stated that he did not want to wait until WrestleMania for a title match, and decided that he wanted to face then champion Randy Orton for the title on that same episode. Orton declined to defend the title on Raw, but proposed to Cena that they could meet at WWE's next pay-per-view event, No Way Out, in a title match, to which Cena agreed. At the event, Cena defeated Orton by disqualification, but did not win the title because a title can only change hands via pinfall or submission. That same night, Triple H won an Elimination Chamber match, where the ring is surrounded by a steel structure of chain and girders, to earn a title shot at WrestleMania. The night after No Way Out, Cena demanded that he receive a title rematch, following his match with Orton, but Raw General Manager William Regal, a portrayed match maker and rules enforcer, announced that Cena and Orton would be facing each other in a non-title match, with Triple H as the special guest referee, in the main event later that night, with the stipulation that if Cena won, he would join the title match at WrestleMania, making it a standard match involving three wrestlers. Cena won the match, making him part of the main event at WrestleMania. At WrestleMania, Orton defeated Triple H and Cena to retain the title, after pinning Cena. At Backlash, Orton defended the title once again against Cena and Triple H, this time in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match which also included John "Bradshaw" Layfield. Triple H won the match after eliminating Orton last to win the title. On the June 2 episode of Raw, Cena faced Jeff Hardy, with the stipulation being that if Cena or Hardy won they would earn a title shot against Triple H at Night of Champions. Cena won the match to challenge Triple H for the title at Night of Champions. Three weeks later, during the fifth annual WWE Draft, a mock sports draft lottery in which wrestlers switched programs, Triple H was drafted to the SmackDown brand. On the June 27 episode of SmackDown, it was revealed that Triple H would still defend the title against Cena.
  The main feud on the SmackDown brand was between Edge and Batista over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the June 6 episode of SmackDown, Batista, Funaki, Nunzio, and Colin Delaney defeated Edge, Chavo Guerrero, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder in an eight-man tag team match. A stipulation was placed in the match that if Batista's team won the tag team match, Batista earned a World title match against Edge at Night of Champions. The following week, SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero added a predicament to Batista's title shot, stating that in order for the title match to occur at Night of Champions, Batista would have to defeat The Great Khali to finalize his title shot. Batista defeated the Great Khali and retained his title shot. On the June 23 episode of Raw, Batista was drafted to the Raw brand as a part of the 2008 WWE Draft. That same night, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon informed Edge that even though Batista was 
caption: Triple H as WWE Champion
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