It was the final Night of Champions held during the first brand split, which ended in August 2011, but was reinstated in July 2016.

It was also the first Night of Champions event to feature a non-title match, where Big Show defeated CM Punk.

In the Raw main event, Randy Orton defeated defending champion Sheamus, John Cena, Wade Barrett, Chris Jericho, and Edge in a six-man elimination challenge match to win the WWE Championship and in the SmackDown main event, Kane defeated The Undertaker in a No Holds Barred match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

Night of Champions was an annual pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 2007.

It was held on September 19, 2010, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.

At Fatal 4-Way in June, Sheamus won his second WWE Championship in a fatal four-way match against Cena, Edge and Orton after interference from The Nexus and, at Money in the Bank in July, defeated Cena to retain the title in a Steel Cage match, again after The Nexus interfered.

At SummerSlam, Sheamus defended the championship against Orton and lost via disqualification, but as per WWE rules, retained the title.

However, the general manager announced that Sheamus was to defend his WWE Championship against Orton, Cena, Jericho, Edge, and Barrett in a six-pack challenge at Night of Champions.

The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand featured the champion Kane against his storyline half-brother The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship.

During the weeks leading up to SummerSlam, Kane was convinced that Mysterio was the one behind the attack on his brother and upon defeating him, attempted to put him in a casket when The Undertaker appeared inside it.

Then, on the September 10 episode of SmackDown, Undertaker challenged Kane to make the title match No Holds Barred, which he agreed to a week later.

After the match, Lay-Cool attacked Melina, stating they had defeated everyone on the SmackDown brand while champions and decided to go after the Raw Divas.

Another rivalry from Raw involved champion The Miz against Daniel Bryan for the WWE United States Championship.

Afterward, the two resumed their rivalry, distracting or attacking each other during matches, with The Miz joined by his rookie from the second season of NXT, Alex Riley.

Another SmackDown rivalry involved the champion Dolph Ziggler against Kofi Kingston for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

The actual pay-per-view opened with Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by Kaitlyn and Vickie Guerrero) defending the Intercontinental Championship against Kofi Kingston.

In the main event, Sheamus defended the WWE Championship against Wade Barrett, Randy Orton, John Cena, Edge, and Chris Jericho in a six-pack challenge elimination match.

[1] John Canton from TJR Reviews praised the six-Pack Elimination Challenge for the WWE Championship calling it the best match from the event.

[8] This would also be the final Night of Champions held during the first brand split, which ended in August 2011, just prior to the 2011 event,[9] but it was reinstated in July 2016.

[10] Also in April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment with the "WWE" name becoming an orphaned initialism.