The main rivalry from SmackDown for Night of Champions is between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy in their battle over the World Heavyweight Championship. One month before the show, at Extreme Rules, Punk used his guaranteed title match he earned by winning the Money in the Bank ladder match against Hardy; he beat him, and won the World Heavyweight title. The two had many confrontations about it which lead to The Bash and a match that saw Punk get disqualified for kicking the referee. Then, Hardy attacked Punk because Hardy thought Punk kicked the referee on purpose. On the July 2 episode of "Superstars" fans were told that Punk had suffered a storyline eye injury. Punk's reasoning to Hardy's accusation was that he kicked the referee on accident due to his inability to clearly see Jeff, who he was really trying to kick. To settle the dispute on to who the rightful champion was, SmackDown general manager, Theodore Long, announced another match between the two at Night of Champions, which was accepted by both competitors.
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