WWE Night of Champions 2015: 5 Worst Booking Decisions in PPV's History

It's safe to say that WWE Creative doesn't always hit the nail on the head when it comes to booking the big shows, and Night of Champions has had more than a few instances in the past few years.

Poor booking decisions can come in various formats; be it controversial ending to matches, segments that don't make sense, or even certain bouts happening in the first place.

And as mentioned, there have been plenty of times in the relatively brief history of this show where WWE have got their booking all wrong with some of the company's biggest stars.

Hopes will be high that the 2015 show doesn't have any instances that can be added to this list, but for now, here are five of the more bizarre and ultimately poorest booking calls in the history of Night of Champions.

Around the time of Night of Champions in 2008, John Morrison and The Miz were, by comparison to the rest of the field, doing a decent job as tag champions.

They had really helped to bump up the interest in the midcard and make the tag titles worth paying attention to again thanks to their exploits on ECW.

But when the 2008 edition of the show had rolled around, WWE for some inexplicable reason had thrown them into a title match with none other than Finlay and his miniature sidekick, Hornswoggle. 

Sure, Hornswoggle was good at what he did, playing the annoying sidekick of the Irishman and generally causing mischief. But placing him into a full-blown match for the prestigious tag titles? This just didn't work at all.

It really took the edge off the work Morrison and Miz had put into making the tag titles relevant again, and although they won pretty quickly, the scars from this battle were felt for a long time.

Luckily, they eventually managed to restore the credibility in their reign and become great tag champions in the long run. But as far as matches that should have never been booked go, this is somewhere near the top.

Most people may think this is another ode to CM Punk, given how he's a firm favorite of many WWE fans, even in the present day.

But this is less to do with CM Punk losing, and more to do with his victor being the guy who had his hand held up after the match.

Let's not avoid the obvious: CM Punk was massively over during the summer of 2011, and he'd established a great reputation as one of the company's biggest stars.

A feud with Triple H, after being removed from the WWE Championship scene, could have been a great way to get him back on track after dropping the belt to Alberto Del Rio.

But instead of going over against Triple H, WWE decided to pin the victory on the guy who had scarcely wrestled in the past few years. It made little sense and for the credibility of one of their full-time, dedicated in-ring competitors, it was simply the wrong move.

Much like the slide before, this shouldn't be viewed as taking the popular angle and, in this instance, having a dig at John Cena for beating Alberto Del Rio.

It's irrelevant that Cena was the guy to beat him at Night of Champions in 2011, although it certainly didn't seem to sit well with WWE fans that Cena was the one picking up the belt.

The poor booking here is more based on the fact that a little over a month after winning the WWE Championship against all the odds and amidst much shock at SummerSlam, Alberto Del Rio was dropping it.

Why? It made little sense that given how much hype WWE had invested in Del Rio, they would make such short work of a title reign so early into his time with the company.

Going over Cena, controversially or not, would have given the Mexican some great momentum from which to build. Instead, he dropped the belt and never quite had the same feel about him.

Although the career of John Cena will no doubt draw much criticism when it finally comes to its conclusion, there can be no doubting that when he stepped into the ring with CM Punk, good things usually happened.

You only have to go back a few years to 2011 and 2012, and Punk vs. Cena was the top rivalry in WWE. 

So when they locked horns again at the 2012 edition of Night of Champions with Punk's WWE Championship on the line, more great things were expected.

And the two delivered, producing a great match in the ring until an ultimately controversial finish that tainted the whole thing. It would have been smart to pin a win on either man in the circumstances, but WWE opted for a bizarre draw in even more bizarre circumstances.

WWE inexplicably decided to have Punk and Cena pin each other at the same time, leaving the officials with no choice but to call a draw and have Punk escape with his WWE title in a low-key manner.

It was a ludicrous and absurd finish to what was a fantastic bout.

Fast forward two years from that CM Punk vs. John Cena finish, and WWE was at it again with another controversial finish in the main event of Night of Champions.

This instance came from last year's show, where Cena took on Brock Lesnar with the latter's WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line.

And once again, Cena played his part in a thrilling main event that had some great highlights, until another ridiculous finish that was marred by poor booking.

Toward the end of the match, Cena would finally counter Lesnar's dominance of the match and really take it to the champion. He put Lesnar in the STF and it looked like for all money, Lesnar was going to tap.

But cue Seth Rollins, who ran down and interrupted the match and ultimately cost Cena the win. That in itself wasn't particularly great booking, but then having Rollins attempt to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and eventually fail to do so made him look weak.

It all seemed incredibly confusing, and luckily for WWE, when we examine the present day, Rollins recovered well and has since become the go-to heel in WWE. But this was far from one of his best nights.