New World Heavyweight Champion. Those are the words that rang through the wrestling world this week. Greeted with some apprehension by a few, by others it was welcome news. For your Wrestling God it was a little of both. You see, Alberto Del Rio’s defeat of Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship came out of the blue. I had heard rumours that Del Rio would be involved in the World Championship Match at Royal Rumble and looking down Smackdown’s depleted roster, with Orton competing in the Royal Rumble Match itself then Del Rio may have been the only other candidate.
Even if that is true, Del Rio’s World Heavyweight Championship victory has to go down as the first odd booking decision of the year. Big Show’s reign, entertaining if a little repetitive, at least yielded a good match at Hell in a Cell and a choice effort at Survivor Series. Yet Del Rio’s reign is made even more perplexing by the fact that it comes just four months after his demoralising and soul destroying feud against Sheamus in which Del Rio repeatedly challenged the ‘Great White’ for the gold and lost every time. How WWE can quite justify putting the strap around Del Rio’s waist after a very dull end to 2012 is beyond even me.
His final defeat to Sheamus came at Night of Champions 2012. Alberto then fell to Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell, eliminated by the Viper at Survivor Series and was a last thought along with the Miz to fill time at TLC. Performances aside, I would genuinely love someone to point out to me where Del Rio has earned his given reign. Surely it would have made more sense to have Del Rio wage a war against Show that either led into the Rumble or Wrestlemania instead of changing the champion just to add a different flavour to the World Heavyweight Championship picture as we step onto the Road to Wrestlemania.
Around this time of year, it is imperative that WWE plan everything they do to the letter. Any kind of mess up of laziness such as this could cost them dear when the Wrestlemania buy rate comes in. We’ve seen this time and time again over the years, hasty and rash booking costing pay per view numbers. Had WWE branded the face Del Rio as a serious threat in the run up to the Royal Rumble, including a major victory at TLC then we could have brought into Alberto as Champion. As it is, Royal Rumble looks like it could be make or break for the false millionaire and his tenure in WWE.
A New Partnership
If you read the first blog of 2013 then you will have known that your Wrestling God was in talks with FremantleMedia to have the latest WWE releases sent to him, so he could review them for your benefit, my good minions. Well the news coming out of the good people at FremantleMedia is that they would be happy to provide your Wrestling God with the DVD’s to review.
So after the WWE 13 review which will be the first feature in our new ‘Review Corner’ – which will be here for you within the next week, we will have the chance to look at the latest releases and see which parts WWE should have left out and which are worth your hard earned money, starting with Night of Champions 2012 DVD. I have to say that I am very much looking forward to this new partnership.
I told you. 2013, we’re going to change this business for the better.
Onwards and upwards...
