Royal Rumble 2013

Finally…. The Rock HAS COME BACK…. home.  Last night, the Royal Rumble Pay Per View dominated our television screen and kept my husband and I on the edge of our seats.  The preshow, which aired on WWE’s Youtube channel, was a bit of a let down.  The site experienced a bit of lag which may have been from the amount of people tuning in, but thankfully all we seemed to have missed was The Big Show going on a rant about losing the Heavyweight title to the much smaller Alberto Del Rio.  The preshow featured Antonio Cesaro versus Mike “The Miz” in a match for the United States Championship.  While I appreciate the WWE’s attempt to give something to those who can’t afford or are otherwise unable to watch the Pay Per View, I don’t think championship matches should be thrown to the preshow.  They deserve better.

Much to my dismay, Cesaro held onto the belt and remained champion.  He is a solid wrestler and has a nice set of moves that set him apart from the competition, but he annoys me.  I’m not a fan of the type of heel that he is.  I feel that there are better ways to be hated than going for the easy route of insulting whatever city you are in and calling Americans fat and lazy.  He’s also gotten a bit obnoxious with waving the American flag around during his entrances.  The Miz has definitely grown on me, especially lately.  He’s gone from being that dude from the Real World to being someone I can get behind.  I enjoy him on the mic and in the ring, so it was a let down to see the title slip away from him.

The Pay Per View opened with the Heavyweight Title match; the champion Alberto Del Rio had to again take on The Big Show in a last man standing match.  Since Show turned heel, he has been an unstoppable force.  Del Rio was only able to win the title from him by pinning him underneath the announce table, so his chances weren’t exactly looking good for this match.  This was a hell of a way to open the Royal Rumble; Del Rio was thrown through a table from atop the light fixtures at the entrance and later countered with a fire extinguisher and some chairs.  The victory came when Del Rio was able to get Show in a cross armbreaker, allowing his ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez to duct tape Show’s ankles to the ring’s rope so he couldn’t get to his feet.  Since there were no disqualifications, Del Rio retained his title.  I’m not always a fan of sneaky ways to obtain a victory, but what else can you do when faced with an opponent who is seven feet tall and weighing in at almost 450 pounds?

Following that brutal match, we had the battle for the Tag Team titles.  The champions going in were Daniel Bryan and Kane of Team Hell No.  They were set to face Team Rhodes Scholars, the pairing of Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow.  I was excited for this match, but didn’t expect the titles to change hands due to the popularity of Team Hell No.  The pairing of Bryan and Kane makes absolutely no sense and that is why it works.  Their anger management issues and their inability to see eye to eye gives them a very unique chemistry.  Unfortunately, this was a match we have seen a few times before; they didn’t add enough to it to make it special for the Pay Per View.  Team Hell No was able to retain their titles after Bryan put Sandow in the No Lock and caused him to tap out.

Oddly enough, the Royal Rumble match was next.  Typically this match is the final event of the Pay Per View, but I suspect they moved it up in order to be able to close out with The Rock.  Dolph Ziggler was the first in the ring, followed by Chris Jericho and his lite brite jacket.  Jericho, in storyline, lost his contract after losing a match to Ziggler a few months back, so it made sense to start with these two who definitely still have bad blood between them.  The only real surprise entrant was Golddust, who was eventually eliminated by his brother, Cody Rhodes.  It was great to see him, but I was hoping for the return of Mark Henry and was obviously let down.  Kofi Kingston topped last year’s handstand by using a chair to get back into the ring without allowing his feet to hit the floor.  The coveted last entry was saved for Ryback, who managed to eliminate five people and leave himself alone with John Cena.  I was pulling for a Ryback win but unfortunately he was eliminated and Cena stole the victory.  Now, I like Cena but I’m beyond exhausted with him constantly getting title shot after title shot.  I understand that he is the bread and butter of the company, but he’s not the only superstar they’ve got at their disposal.  Perhaps Ryback isn’t ready for another title shot at a big event, but he would have been a better choice for a winner than Cena.  Sorry, John.

After Cena left the stage, it was finally time for CM Punk to defend his title against the returning Rock.  My husband’s wish was for Punk to take the victory, not because he’s a fan, but because it’s too soon for The Rock to grab the title and because it would be nice to see The Rock chase after Punk for a few months.  Since Punk was under watch due to his shady actions in the past, he was in danger of being stripped of his title if The Shield interfered with the match to allow Punk to again cheat his way to a victory.  It was a great match, but as soon as it looked like The Rock was going to take it, the arena went dark for a few moments, only to have the lights come back up to show a beaten and battered Rock lying on the broken announce table.  Punk rolled him into the ring to secure a win, but it was taken away by Vince McMahon.  McMahon attempted to strip Punk of the title, but The Rock would not allow it and instead requested the match be restarted.  McMahon agreed and The Rock was able to elbow his way to a victory, taking the title from Punk.  It was a great match, but is it too soon?  Is it right for The Rock to come back and win it all in his first match?  Will he stick around and be the champ we deserve or will he only wrestle part time due to his demanding film schedule?  There are a lot of questions, some of which I hope will be answered tonight on Raw.  I do hope that this title victory means that The Rock will be back full time for a while and will be at the Raw event in Indianapolis that we have very good tickets to.

As you probably have noticed, a Divas match was absent from this Pay Per View.  I would say noticeably absent, but did anyone really notice?  The Diva matches have sadly become the time when it’s safe to take a bathroom break.  With the loss of Beth Phoenix, the Bella Twins, and Eve, there isn’t much left to play with.  The talent is there, but the storylines aren’t.  There is little to no real effort put into the Diva division and that is a real shame.  These ladies should be allowed to tangle, not just be expected to shake their booties and be eye candy for the audience.

Overall, this was a great Pay Per View and I’m happy with the results.  I’m very excited to see the aftermath tonight on Raw, especially with Punk and The Rock.  I expect Big Show will be furious and that Team Hell No will argue about the Royal Rumble match results and anything else that crosses their minds.  I definitely want some reassurance that The Rock did not come back just to give us part-time attention.  Punk can definitely get on your nerves, but he was a very present champion.  He was there, he was loud, and he ensured that all eyes were on him.  The Rock can definitely get the attention, but will he be present or will we be forced to settle for video promos from afar?  I’m hoping for the former.  The last thing our new champion needs to do is fade away right after getting this moment in the sun.