| Night of Champions | |||
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&sq=&lang=&file=File:Night_of_Champions_2023_Poster.jpg) Promotional poster featuring Roman Reigns and Bianca Belair | |||
| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | ||
| Date | May 27, 2023 | ||
| City | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | ||
| Venue | Jeddah Super Dome | ||
| Attendance | 13,000[1] | ||
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| Night of Champions chronology | |||
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| WWE in Saudi Arabia chronology | |||
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The 2023 Night of Champions was the 10th and final Night of Champions professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was the first Night of Champions held since 2015. This was also the first Night of Champions to take place on a Saturday and the first held in Saudi Arabia, subsequently making it the ninth event that WWE held in the country under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030.
The event was originally announced to be held as an event titled "King and Queen of the Ring", which would have revived the King of the Ring event series but with a rebranding, however, WWE decided to instead revive Night of Champions; King and Queen of the Ring would get rescheduled for 2024 at the same venue. This was the first Night of Champions held following the reintroduction of the brand split in July 2016 and the first to livestream on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021. The event also replaced the previously annual Hell in a Cell event.
The original concept of Night of Champions (2007–2015) was that every main roster championship was contested. This theme was not retained for the 2023 event and instead celebrated the crowning of a new World Heavyweight Champion for Raw and also marked the 1,000th day for SmackDown's Roman Reigns as Universal Champion. Instead of defending his title, Reigns teamed with Solo Sikoa to challenge Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in which Owens and Zayn retained. This was the final match of the night and was one of three matches promoted as part of a triple main event, the other two were the aforementioned World Heavyweight Championship match, which saw Raw's Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeat SmackDown's AJ Styles to become the inaugural champion in the opening bout, and a match between Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar, which Lesnar won via technical submission. Four other matches were contested at the event, the most prominent of which saw Asuka defeating Bianca Belair to win the Raw Women's Championship, ending Belair's record title reign at 420 days. This would be the last event for the women's championships to carry a brand name, as two weeks after the event, the Raw and SmackDown women's championships were renamed as the WWE Women's Championship and Women's World Championship, respectively.
The event received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans. The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match and the ending that followed were deemed highlights of the night, with praise also given to the World Heavyweight Championship match.
- ^ Al-Mayman, Hussam (May 27, 2023). "WWE fans see their heroes battling for glory". Arab News. Archived from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.