The Geek Link writes- Last Sunday the WWE presented arguably their second top PPV, The Royal Rumble. This year’s Royal Rumble not only featured the legendary battle royale that serves as the beginning of the road to Wrestlemania, but the return of The Rock as he took on WWE Champ CM Punk. Those two matches alone made this PPV worth the price of admission. It’s just a shame that the price came with the cost of innovation. While the Rumble had some gems in there, chances are the Royal Rumble will be remembered best as the PPV that the WWE had the chance to swerve and shock us but ultimately decided to be predictable and disappointing. But does that mean Royal Rumble 2013 was bad? Let’s take a look back and find out. 4.6/5
My other big problem was the match between Punk and Rock. Now I'm a big punk fan so I didn't really like seeing the title change hands but I do understand that every reign has to come to an end and that is fine. But the match was crap. It wasn't very good for a match that is the end of a historic title reign. It should have been a bigger, Longer and more grand match but it wasn't. On top of that they made punk look insanely weak. I mean here is a guy they have show kick out of multiple AA's and many other finishers but a simple Peoples Elbow put him away? They couldn't let him kick out and then lose a minute or 2 later? It was just lazy and you could tell they didn't really care.
Based on what I saw here there is a solid chance I won't bother with Mania this year. The card is gonna need to look damn good to make up for what is likely be another terrible Cena vs Rock match.
As far as the ending not being grand enough, please sit back and think it over. It took The Rock coming out of retirement to end the reign. It took one of the biggest names of wrestling to do what Cena, Ryback, Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho and others couldn't. That fact by itself made Punk look anything but weak, least in my eyes.
Honestly, the reign was so incredible and so amazing, I dunno if there was anything WWE could logically do to end the reign that wouldn't be considered a let down. Unless they signed Samoa Joe, and had he, Bryan, Chris Hero, Antonio Caesaro, and Punk wrestle an iron man match at Wrestlemania, I don't think there was anything WWE could do that would leave up to such high expectations. In the end, I think we all wanted Punk's reign to keep going.
As far as not kicking out of the finisher, first keep in mind Punk lasted almost a minute in the Sharpshooter and kicked out after a Rock Bottom on the floor. Second, at the end of the day, Punk's a heel. Heels don't get good guy invincibility. It's not burying, it's just normal wrestling.
I can understand where you're coming as far as the predictability that now follows Wrestlemania. It's has been a bane for the events for some time. If Rock and Cena II was the only match taking place, I'd skip it too. However, let's wait and see what else WWE is going to do. The plan could be for Punk to end the streak for all we know. I remain hopeful that this will be the last Mania with Rock owning the main event, but time will tell.
Hey, thanks very much for the comment. I appreciate any feedback or opinions. I hope wrestling gets better for ya.
We are supposed to believe that the guy who has had one of the best reigns in 20 years didn't want it enough to kick out of a finisher or 2? I just don't like it. We know punk can put on epic matches we have seen a few with Cena and of course the classic Punk and Danial Bryan had at over the limit. I just felt let down but you have a point. After such a great reign pretty much everything was gonna feel like a let down.
Predictable, short and way too much downtime in the match. I honestly feel that Punk carried The Rock through the match. If he was facing Cena again it would have been as bad as WresleMainia last year.
The Rock just isn't practising enough and now he'll go back to his home and talk smack to the other superstars on the titantron once a week, defend the title once a month in crappy matches and probably lose to Cena at mania and leave again.
If WWE writers are smart and the rock plays ball they could do a great angle between Cena, Rock, Lesnar and Punk. A man can dream.
I hope that the match this year won't be simply Cena and Rock II but I think it will. Last year Rock was intervied for a site about what would be happening at next years mania(this years now) and asked if he would face Lesnar and he just smiled and said he was saying a thing. That kinda sounds like it would be something with Brock but alot of things change over the course of a year and with what happened at the end of Raw this past Monday i'm expecting Brock vs HHH II. Some have been saying maybe a triple threat with Cena, Punk and Rock could happen but I think that to is nothing but a dream.
the interesting thing is where do they take punk? one thing that could be interesting is punk trying to end the streak to solidify himself as the best in the world. not the most creative booking but it would produce some great mic work from punk