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.
Production
Background
In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promoted their annual Vengeance pay-per-view (PPV) as a joint PPV titled Vengeance: Night of Champions, which was both the seventh Vengeance event and the inaugural Night of Champions event. This would be the final Vengeance event (until 2011), as WWE decided to drop Vengeance in 2008 in favor of continuing Night of Champions. The 2008 Night of Champions thus established the PPV as an annual event for the promotion—and the first to be promoted solely as Night of Champions—and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. It was held on June 29, 2008, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
As per the theme of the event, every championship promoted by WWE at the time was defended. These included the four championships on Raw—the ECW Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, the World Tag Team Championship, and the WWE Women's Championship—the three championships on SmackDown—the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship, and the WWE Tag Team Championship—and the single championship on ECW—the United States Championship. Although SmackDown and ECW claimed ownership of their respective titles, a talent exchange agreement existed between the two brands, allowing wrestlers to challenge for either brands' championships.
Storylines
The event featured eight professional wrestling matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown, and ECW.