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Royal Rumble 2013 is officially in the books and yours truly, Mr. Tito, is here to bring the "Excellence in Column Writing" to you to analyze this show. My overall thoughts? Pretty good show... Watching it in glorious High Definition (HD) was quite impressive, especially for the 30 man over-the-top Rumble match. I won't declare this Royal Rumble, however, the "Best of All Time" or anywhere close. The main event needed to produce but the booking disallowed it. First of all, for all of you yelling that the Royal Rumble was too predictable. Who cares? It's contrived entertainment, anyway, where most of the results are predictable to begin with. With pro wrestling, it's not about the end result but the journey. Certainly, you could see Rock vs. John Cena II developing for Wrestlemania 29 a mile away. But the enjoyment of Royal Rumble 2013 is getting to see the 30 Man Rumble match, which is always fun, and seeing a first-time ever match between CM Punk vs. Rock. That's why you tune in... Possible problem for Royal Rumble 2013 is that the Rock vs. CM Punk is probably falling short of expectations. Overall, I thought Rock vs. CM Punk was decent... But the booking of the Shield attacking Rocky with the lights out, Vince McMahon coming out to threaten to strip CM Punk of the WWE Title, and then the Rock restarting the match... I don't know. Just seems to taint the Rock's victory and then takes away from a possible early "Match of the Year" candidate. Punk and Rock had decent in-ring chemistry and those last 10 minutes of the match could have been used to put a nicer bow tie on the match. Instead, we had a booking mess. Some will argue that the finish "protects" CM Punk, but I laugh at that. Rock was thrown through a table and yet Punk still couldn't win. It's just another "brick in the wall" on one of the worst booked WWE Title runs in WWE history. Over a year of not main eventing, not being allowed to have good wins, and poor booking by WWE Creative. Punk vs. Rock match gets ***3/4 for a match rating in my book. DANGEROUS botched spot with the attempted Rock Bottom on CM Punk, but the table gave out underneath them. On the other hand, I very much enjoyed the Rumble Match. Lots of surprises, great work by the current WWE stars, and I agreed 100% with the winner being John Cena. Sorry kiddies, but the Rumble match should set up the BEST WRESTLEMANIA MATCH possible and like it or not, Rock vs. John Cena II is that. No need to waste the Royal Rumble subsidizing the Smackdown brand, once again. Nice ending with the final 3 with Ryback, Sheamus, and John Cena. Quite possibly, the WWE may have fed the insiders about wanting Sheamus to win again, as that kept me on my toes to see if the Sheamus love would continue. The Rumble match had some great surprise entrants. Holy crap @ Chris Jericho's entrance at #2. Completely unexpected. Considering that Jericho hasn't been wrestling, the guy arrived in great shape and was on fire within the match. Jericho lasted a long time and I could imagine he'll earn another WWE run with that. No Carlito or Shelton Benjamin, as I enjoyed Shelton Benjamin taunting everybody on his Twitter account about not being in the Rumble. The Rhodes boys got their wish, as Goldust returned and went directly after his little brother, Cody Rhodes. They begged for a Wrestlemania match and the reaction from the crowd for both known brothers fighting had a decent reaction... Good to see the Godfather (funny comment by Jerry Lawler with "Thank God he's still with us"), although the WWE attempted to make him the new Rumble record for getting tossed. Too bad those ropes slowed him down. Hoooooooooo Train! I thought both Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler had impressive endurance runs and pretty much helped carry the Rumble match. Crazy stuff on the outside with Kofi Kingston. Seemed to me that the Royal Rumble had many wasted spots with tag team members. Honestly, the 3 Man Band had NO SHOT in hell to win and ditto for the Prime Time Players. MORE SURPRISE ENTRANTS, PLEASE! Bo Dallas lasted a long time considering his seniority in the company. We'll see if Team Hell No lasts through this week as both members, Bryan and Kane, ruined each other's Rumble match opportunity. Good win for Alberto Del Rio. I thought he mixed it up with Big Show well, possibly better than most wrestlers have for the past year (including John Cena). Personally, I wish the match wasn't a "Last Man Standing", as that match just provides an excuse for a smaller wrestler to be unable to pin a larger wrestler. The WWE tried that over 10 years ago with a Kane vs. Chris Jericho "Last Man Standing" match, as it felt like Jericho wasn't good enough to pin Kane. I did like how Ricardo duct taped Big Show's feet to disallow Big Show to beat the 10 count. That's why male managers are needed in this business! They cheat to win, baby. Good psychology for Del Rio to attack Big Show's arm to disallow him to reach for the taped feet as the count was going on. Enjoyable match, ***1/2. Fun stuff with Bret Hart backstage. I'd mark out if he gave me those glasses, too! The YouTube.com/WWE.com/Facebook.com EXCLUSIVE United States Title match between Antonio Cesaro vs. the Miz was good, although it was quite one sided with Cesaro pretty much dominating the match. In other words, he physically worked Miz. Just a sick move where Cesaro caught Miz in mid air, spun him around, and dropped Miz across Cesaro's knee. Amazing move. Honestly, the best I've seen Cesaro look since he became United State champion. Hopefully, as this past month has afforded him, he can continue to develop his personality. Cesaro is a good in-ring worker. **1/2 The World Tag Title match between Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan) vs. Team Rhodes Scholars (Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes) was a decent match, but nothing special that stood out on a Pay Per View show. Rather, it would have been a solid RAW or Smackdown match instead. There just seems to be a lack of focus on Tag Team moves and psychology, but that's what happens when you throw 4 singles wrestlers into a tag division and expect them to create a credible tag team division. Just doesn't happen. Daniel Bryan is super over right now, too, as seen not just from this tag match, but later on in the Rumble match. If the WWE can't find legitimate singles work for that guy with THAT reaction, then God help them. I wouldn't have any problems with Bryan winning the Royal Rumble match itself because he's getting the reaction necessary to become a bigger star. ** for the tag match rating. LAST WORD: A good Royal Rumble show, overall. However, the surrounding matches lacked that one standout match that helps add to this show's greatness. The Rock vs. CM Punk match didn't deliver but maybe only because the booking ruined the last 10 minutes of the match. When handed one of the most unique matches in the last 5 years, don't overbook it, WWE. I personally believe that both Rock and CM Punk walk out of that event looking weaker. CM Punk can't beat a guy who was powerbombed through a table and the Rock needed a restart of the match to win the WWE Title. The continued destruction of wrestler credibility will forever haunt this WWE Creative Staff. I'm going B- (B-Minus) for this show. Good, slightly better than average show... But could have been much better. Just chill till the next episode! Comments and Tweets are welcome. FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @titowrestling
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