Night of Champions returns tonight on PPV, and is set to make a lot of unprecedented benchmarks: The first time two Divas matches have been held on one card since 2006 & also the first time the same match has appeared in two consecutive PPVs since late 2007. But the real history being made tonight is that Night of Champions marks the first time ever that both the Women’s and Divas Championships have been defended on the same night.
But enough about tonight, this is about the event ‘Through the Years’. Night of Champions was originally known as Vengeance and began in 2001, before being fully rebranded in 2008. Vengeance/Night of Champions has seen several grudges settled but the Women’s Championship was first defended in 2001, but not seen again until 2007. Tonight marks the first time the Divas Championship will be defended at the PPV.
It all began in 2001…
2001
Jacqueline vs Trish Stratus
At the inaugural Vengeance PPV, young rookie Diva, Trish Stratus was in the first of her historic seven Women’s Championship reigns. Just a month prior to Vengeance [held in December in ’01], Trish did the unthinkable — beat five other more experienced wrestlers to win the title. At Vengeance, Stratus would defend the title for the first time against the veteran, Jacqueline:
Remember a time when Trish was the one who was green in the ring? Feels like a lifetime ago, right? This was a nice matchup, though I gotta tell you, I don’t miss the ‘puppies’ chants one bit. As we all know, Trish would go onto hold the title six more times and get much, much better in the ring [we promise!].
More ‘Through the Years’ after the cut:
