A – Excellent
B – Good
C – Mediocre
D – Avoid
Release Date: 15th April 2013
Available From: www.wwedvd.co.uk
Price:
DVD £ 19.99
Blu-ray £ 22.99
Format Reviewed: DVD
(Also Available on Blu-ray)
What It’s About:
WWE’s 2013 Royal Rumble event from the U.S Airways Centre in Phoenix Arizona on January 27th. Featuring the thirty man Royal Rumble match and the much anticipated C.M Punk vs The Rock for the WWE Championship.
Strengths:
The interview with Dolph Ziggler, Big E. Langston and A.J Lee is amusing for the short time it lasts. Langston is fully committed to the role of phony interviewer and his put on accent raises a smile or two. However, Dolph Ziggler’s comments about winning the Royal Rumble and unifying the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships are obviously written for him as an in joke by the WWE staff and creative team. WWE do not see Ziggler as the type of wrestler fans would pay to see unify two such illustrious Championships. And we all know whose fault that is.
Having some of the Royal Rumble participants comment on winning the Royal Rumble match to camera, is a wonderful nostalgic trip down memory lane harking back to the early 90’s. John Cena is the star of this segment, wonderfully over the top and passionate, Cena sounds and looks like someone from the early 90’s era of wrestling here. Top marks to all involved.
The Royal Rumble Match itself is one of the highlights of this pay per view as it should be but also has good and bad points. The latter you can read below but let’s look at the positives. Dolph Ziggler is the envy of all men during his entrance to the thirty men extravaganza, when A.J Lee nearly eats his face off; there is a thunderous reception for the returning Chris Jericho, more than I am inclined to believe that Y2J has ever received during the majority of his wrestling career. It’s just a shame that Jericho has gone off of the boil since his return to WWE in January and now faces a diminished role at Wrestlemania, compared to his WWE Championship challenge one year ago. Interestingly enough though, Jericho is the staunch favourite with the crowd in Arizona receiving applause and chants of “You’ve still got it” with almost everything he does, even replying to the crowd at one point “I never lost it baby!”; JBL’s comment during Santino’s entrance is really good when the Italian’s music hits JBL quips “Don’t blink!”; Goldust get the nostalgic pop and a bigger reaction than the man formerly known as Dustin Rhodes got through his entire wrestling career. Goldust and Dustin Rhodes wrestled for over twenty years combined yet never received a bigger reaction than the one he got here; the exchanges between Goldust and his real life brother Cody Rhodes are of a fine quality; Sheamus quickly eliminates the dead wood Titus O’Neil and David Otunga on his appearance in the match. This gets the thumbs up big time. O’Neil and Otunga have no place in WWE in 2013, they’re appalling in the ring and have the charisma and personality of a cabbage; the sedated action picks up the pace upon the arrival of Rey Mysterio who was wearing a Bret Hart inspired vest to hide the expansion of his gut; the hour long encounter features a sparkling elimination escape by Kofi Kingston as he’s knocked from the apron, landing on Tensai’s back, rolling onto the announce table and using JBL’s chair to hop his way back to the ring. It does however make one wonder how many more years Kingston and WWE can continue to devise memorable and unique ways of escaping elimination for the man who, if rumours are true, is facing a heel turn. If you look closely enough then Kingston isn’t so much pushed onto Tensai as voluntarily jumped; the Godfather gets another monstrous reaction as the second surprise nostalgic entrant. Accompanied by his newly christened ‘Rat Pack’ as the word ‘Ho Train’ is no longer permitted on a PG rated WWE product, Godfather comes mightily close to breaking both Santino and the Warlord’s records for immediate elimination; humorously, JBL makes the biggest slip up of the night when John Cena enters the rumble match, jibing “No one is on their feet here!” There is a squeaky bum pause at the announce booth as JBL is notified of his mistake by Vince McMahon through his headset. The speed at which JBL backtracks would impress even Michael Cole fans. The mistake would have been forgivable had it been a mistake. JBL’s words however were almost a hundred percent true; Daniel Bryan clinging for dear life onto tag team partner Kane after eliminating the big red machine adds to the jesting of the match; NXT hopeful Bo Dallas is exceedingly impressive in his first main roster match. WWE should have permitted him to eliminate another star name other than Wade Barrett who doesn’t have the star power needed to get Dallas over. Had Dallas eliminated Sheamus or Randy Orton in the image of Maven eliminating the Undertaker in the 2002 Royal Rumble it would have done a lot more for him. The fact that Barrett was allowed to eliminate Dallas after his own elimination is sheer absurdity. The future looks bright for Bo Dallas in WWE, if the company can get over his size; John Cena gets a huge ovation for eliminating Ryback in the plodding finale. Refreshingly Cena didn’t make any mistakes in this match as he did in the 2005 and 2011 Royal Rumble matches, when he accidentally eliminated the wrong person too soon in the latter and both himself and Batista in the former when both he and Batista lost their footing and went over together. WWE’s booking of John Cena here is delightfully minimal until the last and he mostly merges into the fray remaining undetectable. The Royal Rumble match itself was nothing special, just like the two matches before it, but was adequate. The only flaw in WWE’s plan was that once Cena had triumphed over the rest of the field the result if the upcoming WWE Championship match was never really in doubt.
The WWE Championship Match between reigning WWE Champion C.M Punk and challenger the Rock is a hit and miss affair. One of the most notable moments during the video package is how much the Rock did to get the Shield over in the build up to the Royal Rumble. Rock did a fine sell job for the trio and had he done the same for Miz and R-Truth before their Survivor Series 2011 match against the Rock and John Cena, maybe we could have suspended disbelief as to which team was going to come out victorious; The Rock’s pre-match promo is both electrifying and wholly wonderful. The Rock exudes more passion here than anyone in the Royal Rumble match managed to muster and the promo is the most passionate in WWE in more than a year. WWE could use this as lesson for its development wrestlers in how to hype the crowd before a big match; C.M Punk enters first which is unusual for a Champion. This should have told the onlookers that entering the ring last, cutting such a fine promo, having his mother there who has cancer and having his face solely on the Royal Rumble poster – this was undeniably the Rock’s night; JBL is a hundred percent on the money when he says that C.M Punk has to be considered one of the best in WWE history. Without Punk WWE would have been in massive trouble during the whole of the 2012 period and the Royal Rumble pay per view would not have drawn as many buy rates as it did. The Rock vs a champion who has only had the gold for a month isn’t as emotional as watching him dethrone a man who has been on top of WWE’s mountain for 434 days; thankfully, from the beginning to the end, the match had that big fight feel that many WWE Championship matches lacked in the year previous. I’ll go as far to say that Rock vs Punk had more of a big fight feel than Cena vs Rock at WrestleMania 28. This big fight feel would have served the pair well had WWE booked this match and the title change for WrestleMania 29; Punk exudes zeal getting in the Rock’s face right from the very beginning and does a great job in not looking like he’s afraid of the Rock. Sadly that image doesn’t last as having Paul Heyman at ringside and getting involved in the action all adds to the image WWE were trying to give us that Punk can’t beat the Rock without outside help; noticeably the Rock has lost a lot of muscle mass since his WrestleMania 28 clash with John Cena, but is still carrying enough that it considerably slows him down several times during the match and it is noticeable. Listen carefully and you can audibly hear the Rock panting and breathing heavily. This is down to the lack of ring time the Rock has had over the past few months. Had WWE been quicker on the up take then they would have hired the Rock back several weeks early and had him go through a rigorous wrestling routine to get him ring ready, including having him fight in tag team matches on Raw and Smackdown. As it is, the Rock really does look tired halfway through the match; the rest holds come out pretty early in order to give the Rock time to catch his breath. They don’t detract from the match any as Punk does a fine job of integrating them into his routine, much more smoothly than Cena managed to against the Rock at WrestleMania 28; Michael Cole has to be given rare credit for reminding the audience of the Rock’s past in WWE and his history at the Royal Rumble. This was so that the dolts who think the Rock is merely a Hollywood star in a business he doesn’t know anything about are put right; there is a slow and sloppy beginning to the match but as the Rock begins to get back into his old routine and paces himself, the action picks up considerably; there are some really good counters and the Rock’s sharpshooter looks crisp and properly executed. Considering Bret Hart was present backstage and watching the match, the Rock had no choice but to synch it correctly. Punk sold the move as it was designed to be sold, with pain and real terror that this could be the end of his wonderful run as Champion; the moment when the table collapses beneath the Rock and Punk before ‘The Great One’ can hit the Rock Bottom ruins the spot but quick thinking by the Rock and Punk saves the angle from being a complete write off and they complete the spot on the floor with a solid Rock Bottom; when the lights go out and the Shield drop the Rock through the second announcers table is the moment you begin to believe that Punk will actually retain the WWE Championship. There is a mixed reaction when Punk pins the Rock for what seems like the victory but unmistakably, Vince McMahon strutting into the arena to announce he’s going to strip Punk of the WWE Championship for outside interference is met with ecstasy from most of the capacity crowd. WWE could have been clever here and allowed the match to end as it did with Punk pinning the Rock in the middle of the ring and then booked the rematch for the headline spot of WrestleMania 29; the Rock plays the valiant, never surrendering challenger and hero to perfection, when he grabs the microphone and tells Vince McMahon that he doesn’t take the WWE Championship from Punk, the Rock does. A role he’s had so much practice at still comes off as a punch the air moment; admittedly there should have been more back and forth action after the restart of the match, had the Rock and Punk traded close and nail biting near falls for five more minutes before the Rock hit Punk with a devastating Rock Bottom from the middle rope it would have been a more than fitting end to Punk’s conquest that was his 434 day WWE Championship reign. Sadly it doesn’t. The candle of Punk’s reign is extinguished with a People’s Elbow. Even though it is a great feat for Punk to have lasted this long in the political WWE as Champion, his title reign should have ended with a bang; through all of this, it is good to see the Rock with the WWE Championship again. The match isn’t the greatest of either man’s career; they’ve both had and done better than this. But it’s not as bad John Cena vs the Rock at WrestleMania 28 and for that we can be truly thankful. Both men deserve a huge pat on the back for their efforts here and even though it becomes blindly clear that it’s not the same Rock that left WWE in 2002 and 2003, and we never expected it to be, this match is well worth the watch for both the end of a historic Championship reign and the beginning of the final end for the Rock.
Weaknesses:
The DVD extra which sees John Cena interviewed by an unseen member of staff sees John Cena portraying a man who is still devastated by his loss to the Rock at Wrestlemania 28 and one who is being eaten alive by the fact. It’s funny then that his loss to the Rock has hardly been mentioned during the past year, yet suddenly, as the Road to Wrestlemania begins, Cena is stricken with regret. Absurdly, Cena suggest that the dismal Ryback deserves the WrestleMania main event spot and the message to his haters that “Ass whooping season begins now!” is never believable. We may be able to take Cena a lot more seriously had he not had that shit eating grin plastered all over his face during most of the segment. The whole interview is disjointed and flits from subject to subject in the blink of an eye. WWE should have swapped this for an interview with Punk. Seeing a man who has just lost to someone he can’t stand in real life as well as the wrestling world would have been ten times more entertaining.
Speaking of extras, WWE could have put the pre-show United States Championship match between Antonio Cesaro and the Miz; and the NXT tournament final, won by Bo Dallas at Fan Axess, to determine which NXT star would compete in the Royal Rumble match on the DVD and Blu-ray release.
The Last Man Standing Match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Alberto Del Rio and Big Show is painfully slow at its inception and never recovers. The Last man Standing ruling adds to the slow pace. Every time the referee stops to count to ten the match suffers a further setback. Alberto Del Rio just can’t carry the Big Show in a match when he’s only beginning to recover from a major burial at WWE’s hands himself. Had WWE made this a Falls Count Anywhere Match then Del Rio could have helped to hide Big Show’s flaws and the match never needed to stall until the conclusion. The ending which sees Ricardo Rodriguez duct tape Big Show’s legs to the bottom rope whilst Del Rio had the arm bar locked in is lifted straight from John Cena vs Batista at Extreme Rules 2010 and therefore stale. Maybe references aren’t fair at this point in Del Rio’s World Championship run but this match pales horribly in comparison to their excellent Last Man Standing scrap two weeks earlier in which Del Rio captured the Championship from Big Show. JBL’s comment that he’s “Never seen Big Show look better” are misplaced as he looked a lot better at Hell in a Cell, Survivor Series and TLC. Even the impressive Chokeslam from the set through the table can’t save this match – impressive secondly because the set held Big Show’s weight.
Jerry Lawler shows how out of touch with wrestling he is in 2013. His comments about Michael Cole commentating on Smackdown have to be corrected by Cole, who informs Lawler that he doesn’t commentate on Smackdown. Yes, Jerry Lawler is paid so much money by WWE for his minimal role that he doesn’t even bother to watch its output of programming to garner all of his facts. Everyone reading this could do Lawler’s job, ten times better for half the price.
The WWE Tag Team Championship Match pitting Team Hell No against Team Rhodes Scholars, again, is nothing special. Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow have been buried so much that no one believes the team will go anywhere. Their defeat at the hand of the bumbling Brodus Clay and the soon to be ‘Future Endeavoured’ Tensai on the pre-show of Elimination Chamber 2013 a month later was the final nail in the coffin for the team. Chants of ‘Cody’s Moustache’ prove that the facial hair the son of WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, is sporting is far more popular than he is. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad match, it’s just unnecessary and time consuming. If anything, it looks like this match was slung on the undercard to pad out the pay per view.
For the third year running, we are shown an almost identical video package on the numbers of the Royal Rumble. Did we really need to see this again? Narrated by Stephanie McMahon who has her voice distorted by machine, it’s repetitive and dull. We know all of this.
As for the weaker points of the Royal Rumble match; on the whole, the match is littered with filler participants. David Otunga, Brodus Clay, Tensai, Titus O’Neil and Darren Young are all irrelevant as are the highly expendable 3MB; Brodus Clay dancing during his entrance is a gun to the head moment; Tensai is almost completely ignored by both commentators and cameras before his elimination. Had Tensai ripped through the competition eliminating a few star names and looked like a monster, WWE could have begun again with Tensai and done something with him in WWE; John Cena gets rid of Cody Rhodes far too easily adding to the burial of Rhodes. This time last year, Cody was riding high as Intercontinental Champion. Three hundred and sixty five days later, he’s all but finished as far as a main event push goes; John Cena should have been allotted a later entrance number as his entrance just about sucks all of the enthusiasm out of the audience. We all knew he was going to win anyway, it wouldn’t have made a difference; The Great Khali should have been spared an entry number. His knees are now so worn down its painful for him to just walk to the ring; JBL’s comment after Dallas eliminates Barrett from the Rumble match and his subsequent beat down at the hand of Barrett is just dumb. JBL basically says that if Dallas didn’t want a beating he shouldn’t have eliminated Barrett from the match. At this point someone should have either handed JBL a list of the match rules or reminded him that he’d competed in this match several times himself and therefore should know the rules; WWE should have replaced 3MB or three other pieces of cannon fodder with the Shield. That they weren’t even seen on camera at such a big event is a disservice to their popularity and hard work over the last few months.
Special Feature:
Royal Rumble – 27th January 2013
John Cena shares his thoughts at the Royal Rumble
Blu-ray Exclusive Extras:
Monday Night Raw – 21st January 2013
Vickie Guerrero and Paul Heyman address the Rock
Ryback vs Heath Slater
C.M Punk declares victory at the Royal Rumble
Kane and Daniel Bryan graduate from anger management
The Rock confronts Paul Heyman
Alberto Del Rio vs Tensai
John Cena proclaims victory at the Royal Rumble
Smackdown – 25th January 2013
C.M Punk addresses the Shield
Conclusion:
Royal Rumble 2013 looks like a shell of its former self. We’ve seen horrendous Royal Rumble events and matches before and certainly, it’s not as bad as any of them, but not as good as the card should have provided. Every match on the card has some flaw if you look close enough and none will set the world on fire. The World Heavyweight Championship match should have been a replay with added wow of the first match between Del Rio and Big Show. The Tag Team Championship Match could have done with a third team in the mix and should have been a lot better for the talent on show. The Royal Rumble match is adequate at best and the WWE Championship Match will only be remembered for the Rock ending C.M Punk’s WWE Championship reign.
There are moments of joy contained in these misgivings though and if you can steel your mind long enough to get to them, then it will feel like some kind of reward when they appear. For fans of the Rock then this release is a must have. It’s good to see him back where he belongs with the WWE Championship around his waist again and as a sign in the crowd says ‘Finally...10 Years...worth the wait!” It certainly was.
Rating: C
