WWE Royal Rumble 2013
WWE Royal Rumble 2013 (1/27/2013)- Phoenix, AZ
PRE-SHOW:
WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Antonio Cesaro(c) vs. The Miz- 5.75/10
ALBERTO DEL RIO & BRET HART BACKSTAGE- I didn’t like this, only because whenever I see these two together, the only thing I can think of is the segment they did in the summer of 2010 when Del Rio told Bret that he hires illegal Canadian immigrants to clean his mansion in Mexico.
LAST MAN STANDING MATCH FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Alberto Del Rio(c) (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. The Big Show)- 7/10
A very, very good match but I really hated the finish. Want to know what would really help Del Rio as a babyface? Winning his matches cleanly, but by using a technicality.
STRIKER INTERVIEWS ZIGGLER, AJ, & BIG E. LANGSTON- good stuff, although I highly doubt that they will actually unify the titles this year.
WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Team Hell No(c) vs. Team Rhodes Scholars- 5.75/10
KANE, DRAGON, & VICKIE BACKSTAGE- pointless. We don’t need to see them arguing about something every damn show. To make matters worse, Kane’s comment that telling someone your number is bad strategy makes very little sense.
I really liked the fact that they gave a whole bunch of guys the opportunity to cut short promos about wanting to win the rumble, rather than just the top names.
2013 ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH- 8.5/10
HOLY F*CKING SH*T IT’S CHRIS F*CKING JERICHO!
I liked a lot of the stuff that they did. The stuff with Ziggler and Jericho, for example, was great, and stuff with Kane and Dragon was entertaining (although their segment earlier made it seem like Dragon was going to enter early on and that Kane would be one of the last few, but Dragon and Kane only entered a few places apart) and I also really liked the stuff with Cody and Goldust. I am extremely disappointed that Kane didn’t reclaim the record for all-time eliminations from HBK. I was going nuts the whole time for the final three and I was certain that Ryback was going to win. Damn. Oh well.
What I didn’t like was that, at least according to the clock on my computer, the entrances were all actually ninety seconds apart. This sort of thing really bugs me because it is the sort of thing that would not happen in a real sport. Can you imagine if sometimes the refs let a guy out of the penalty box ten seconds early while other times they kept a guy in the box for ten extra seconds, with no rhyme or reason behind it?
THE ROCK PROMO- F*CKING AWESOME BABYFACE PROMO!
WWE TITLE MATCH: CM Punk(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. The Rock- 8/10
This was going great until The Shield interference and the restart. They did some pretty cool stuff here and both guys sold well. The table breaking while they were standing on it was unfortunate. I am really disappointed with Rock winning here. Being the guy to end Punk’s title reign is the sort of thing that could be used to solidify a guy like Bryan, Ziggler, Cody, Cesaro, or Ryback at the top of the card pretty much permanently, but having The Rock come back and beat Punk does nothing for anyone! At least having Cena, Sheamus, or Orton take the belt off of Punk would help SOMEONE who is going to stick around. Like Rock vs. Cena or Davey vs. Steen from Border Wars, this was an awesome match… but it was in a situation where awesome was not good enough. This needed to be more than awesome, and it wasn’t.
I also really didn’t like the restart. If Punk is going to be a heel, let him cheat on his own! Don’t have the Shield and Maddox do it for him (I assume that Maddox was the one who shut the lights off). Don’t do basically the same stupid restart that hurt the match at Wrestlemania XXVII! If the Shield is going to interfere in the match, it should matter! Don’t just have it be overturned and have Rock win. What was the point of the interference in the first place, then?
Overall, a very good show from the WWE, although I am extremely disappointed with their choices of who won. You can still do Rock vs. Cena without the title on the line, and I think that doing Punk vs. Ryback for the title at Mania would have been much better. Yes, the ratings for the matches were higher than what would normally just be considered a â€"good†show, but to only have five matches in three and a half hours is kind of ridiculous.
PRE-SHOW:
WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Antonio Cesaro(c) vs. The Miz- 5.75/10
ALBERTO DEL RIO & BRET HART BACKSTAGE- I didn’t like this, only because whenever I see these two together, the only thing I can think of is the segment they did in the summer of 2010 when Del Rio told Bret that he hires illegal Canadian immigrants to clean his mansion in Mexico.
LAST MAN STANDING MATCH FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Alberto Del Rio(c) (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. The Big Show)- 7/10
A very, very good match but I really hated the finish. Want to know what would really help Del Rio as a babyface? Winning his matches cleanly, but by using a technicality.
STRIKER INTERVIEWS ZIGGLER, AJ, & BIG E. LANGSTON- good stuff, although I highly doubt that they will actually unify the titles this year.
WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Team Hell No(c) vs. Team Rhodes Scholars- 5.75/10
KANE, DRAGON, & VICKIE BACKSTAGE- pointless. We don’t need to see them arguing about something every damn show. To make matters worse, Kane’s comment that telling someone your number is bad strategy makes very little sense.
I really liked the fact that they gave a whole bunch of guys the opportunity to cut short promos about wanting to win the rumble, rather than just the top names.
2013 ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH- 8.5/10
HOLY F*CKING SH*T IT’S CHRIS F*CKING JERICHO!
I liked a lot of the stuff that they did. The stuff with Ziggler and Jericho, for example, was great, and stuff with Kane and Dragon was entertaining (although their segment earlier made it seem like Dragon was going to enter early on and that Kane would be one of the last few, but Dragon and Kane only entered a few places apart) and I also really liked the stuff with Cody and Goldust. I am extremely disappointed that Kane didn’t reclaim the record for all-time eliminations from HBK. I was going nuts the whole time for the final three and I was certain that Ryback was going to win. Damn. Oh well.
What I didn’t like was that, at least according to the clock on my computer, the entrances were all actually ninety seconds apart. This sort of thing really bugs me because it is the sort of thing that would not happen in a real sport. Can you imagine if sometimes the refs let a guy out of the penalty box ten seconds early while other times they kept a guy in the box for ten extra seconds, with no rhyme or reason behind it?
THE ROCK PROMO- F*CKING AWESOME BABYFACE PROMO!
WWE TITLE MATCH: CM Punk(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. The Rock- 8/10
This was going great until The Shield interference and the restart. They did some pretty cool stuff here and both guys sold well. The table breaking while they were standing on it was unfortunate. I am really disappointed with Rock winning here. Being the guy to end Punk’s title reign is the sort of thing that could be used to solidify a guy like Bryan, Ziggler, Cody, Cesaro, or Ryback at the top of the card pretty much permanently, but having The Rock come back and beat Punk does nothing for anyone! At least having Cena, Sheamus, or Orton take the belt off of Punk would help SOMEONE who is going to stick around. Like Rock vs. Cena or Davey vs. Steen from Border Wars, this was an awesome match… but it was in a situation where awesome was not good enough. This needed to be more than awesome, and it wasn’t.
I also really didn’t like the restart. If Punk is going to be a heel, let him cheat on his own! Don’t have the Shield and Maddox do it for him (I assume that Maddox was the one who shut the lights off). Don’t do basically the same stupid restart that hurt the match at Wrestlemania XXVII! If the Shield is going to interfere in the match, it should matter! Don’t just have it be overturned and have Rock win. What was the point of the interference in the first place, then?
Overall, a very good show from the WWE, although I am extremely disappointed with their choices of who won. You can still do Rock vs. Cena without the title on the line, and I think that doing Punk vs. Ryback for the title at Mania would have been much better. Yes, the ratings for the matches were higher than what would normally just be considered a â€"good†show, but to only have five matches in three and a half hours is kind of ridiculous.