| Night of Champions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown ECW | ||
| Date | June 29, 2008 | ||
| City | Dallas, Texas | ||
| Venue | American Airlines Center | ||
| Attendance | 16,151 | ||
| Buy rate | 273,000 | ||
| Tagline(s) | It's a Night of Defenders, It's a Night of Challengers, It's a Night of Champions. | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Night of Champions chronology | |||
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The 2008 Night of Champions was the second annual Night of Champions professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on June 29, 2008, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. While it was the second Night of Champions event, it was the first to be promoted solely under the Night of Champions name as the first event was a cross-promotional event with Vengeance called Vengeance: Night of Champions; Night of Champions subsequently replaced Vengeance. As per the theme of the event, every match on the card was contested for one of WWE's eight then-active championships; 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, Big Show.
Night of Champions received 273,000 pay-per-view buys, and was instrumental in helping WWE increase its pay-per-view revenue by $21.9 million compared to the previous year. The professional wrestling section of the Canadian Online Explorer website rated the entire event a 7 out of 10 stars, higher and lower than the 2007 event's ratings of 5 and 7.5 out of 10 (there were two ratings because two different writers reviewed the show). It was also the first Night of Champions PPV broadcast in high definition.