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Royal Rumble (2013)

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The 2013 Royal Rumble was the 26th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on January 27, 2013, at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2013 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 29. It was the last Royal Rumble to feature the World Heavyweight Championship, which was unified with the WWE Championship in December; subsequently, this was the last Royal Rumble to include two eligible championships for the Royal Rumble winner until the 2017 event.

Royal Rumble
Promotional poster featuring The Rock
PromotionWWE
DateJanuary 27, 2013
CityPhoenix, Arizona
VenueUS Airways Center
Attendance15,103[1]
Buy rate512,000
Tagline(s)Finally...
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous
TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 		Next →
Elimination Chamber
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous
2012 		Next →
2014

Five matches were contested at the event, including one on the Pre-Show. In the main event, The Rock defeated CM Punk to win the WWE Championship, which was his first championship since 2002 that also ended Punk's reign at 434 days. On the undercard, John Cena won the 2013 Royal Rumble match, making him the fourth multiple Royal Rumble winner. In another prominent match, Antonio Cesaro defeated The Miz to retain his United States Championship.

Production

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Background

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The event was held at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four".[2] It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania.[3][4] For 2013, the winner could choose to challenge for either the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 29. The 2013 event was the 26th Royal Rumble and was scheduled to be held on January 27, 2013, at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona.[5]

Storylines

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The event comprised five matches, including one on the Pre-Show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, with storylines produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.[6][7]

 
CM Punk lost the WWE Championship to The Rock, ending his reign at 434 days.

On July 23, 2012, during Raw 1000, The Rock announced that he would challenge for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. Later that night, reigning champion CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and John Cena each stated that they'd face The Rock as defending champion; later that night, Punk turned heel, attacking and laying out The Rock.[8][9] Punk defended the championship for the rest of the year, while on December 23, 2012, The Rock tweeted to Punk that he was ready for the Royal Rumble.[10] On the January 7 episode of Raw, Punk retained the WWE Championship against Ryback in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match after The Shield interfered.[11] They also did during Punk's defense against Ryback and John Cena back at Survivor Series;[12] this win secured Punk as the one who would defend against The Rock.[11] On the January 21 episode of Raw while speaking about beating Punk at the Royal Rumble, The Shield assaulted The Rock. After the assault, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that if The Shield interfered in the match, Punk will be stripped of his title.[13]

Big Show began a feud with Alberto Del Rio after humiliating Del Rio's personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, sarcastically picking him to fight Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship during "Champion's Choice Night" on the New Year's Eve 2013 episode of Raw, leading to a disqualification win for Big Show after Del Rio interfered. On the January 11, 2013, episode of SmackDown, Del Rio defeated Big Show in a Last Man Standing match for the championship. Three days later on Raw, Big Show announced that he would invoke his rematch clause at the pay-per-view. The week after, he made the match a Last Man Standing Match.

Event

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Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
English commentators Michael Cole
Jerry Lawler
John Bradshaw Layfield
Pre-show commentators Tony Dawson
Matt Striker
Spanish commentators Carlos Cabrera
Marcelo Rodríguez
Interviewer Matt Striker
Ring announcers Lilian Garcia
Justin Roberts
Referees Charles Robinson
Mike Chioda
Scott Armstrong
Rod Zapata
Darrick Moore (Pre-show)

Pre-show

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The Royal Rumble Pre-Show match featured reigning United States Champion Antonio Cesaro defending his title against The Miz. During the match, Miz attempted a diving attack and injured his leg. Shortly after, Cesaro won after landing the Neutralizer.[14]

Preliminary matches

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As the PPV portion of the show began, a backstage segment was shown with Bret Hart wishing Alberto Del Rio good luck in his match. He then gave Ricardo Rodriguez a pair of his signature sunglasses.[14]

The opening match on the PPV telecast (and second on the card overall) featured reigning World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio defending his title against Big Show in a Last Man Standing match. After Del Rio managed to beat the count after being chokeslammed through a table from an elevated position on the entrance stage, he managed to win when he locked in the Cross Armbreaker while Rodriguez duct taped Show's legs to the bottom rope. Show was unable to free himself in time and was counted out.[14]

Next, reigning WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) defended their titles against Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). The match ended when Bryan applied the No! Lock on Sandow, forcing him to submit.[14]

 
John Cena won the 2013 Royal Rumble match.

After that was the annual Royal Rumble match making it the first time in 7 years (since back in 2006) that the Royal Rumble Match would not be the main event of the namesake PPV. Dolph Ziggler (as per the "Beat The Clock" stipulations from Raw) chose to enter first, followed by the surprise return of Chris Jericho at #2. Another surprise entry, Goldust returned at #8, and spent most of his time battling with his half brother Cody Rhodes (entrant #3), who eventually eliminated him. Sheamus entered at #11, trying to become the fourth man to win back-to-back Rumbles, joining Hulk Hogan ('90-'91), Shawn Michaels ('95-'96), and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ('97-'98). Kofi Kingston (the #4 entrant) provided a highlight, for when he was about to be eliminated, he jumped onto the back of recently eliminated Tensai, who put him on the Spanish announce table. Kingston made it back onto the apron using John Bradshaw Layfield's chair like a pogo stick, but was quickly eliminated by Rhodes before reentering the ring. Following this, The Godfather made a surprise appearance at #17, only to be immediately eliminated by Ziggler. John Cena entered at #19, quickly eliminating Rhodes and #10 entrant Heath Slater. Daniel Bryan (#21) and Kane (#24) teamed up to eliminate #23 The Great Khali, but Bryan then eliminated Kane. When #22 Antonio Cesaro sent Bryan over the top rope, Kane caught him, only to drop him on the floor, eliminating him from the match. Later, NXT tournament winner (and #16 entrant) Bo Dallas managed to eliminate Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett (#18), leading to Barrett eliminating him and perform the Bull Hammer on Dallas, despite having already been eliminated. Ryback entered at #30 and eliminated three wrestlers in quick fashion. Ziggler finally eliminated Jericho after nearly 48 minutes. The final four consisted of Ziggler, Sheamus, Cena and Ryback. Sheamus eliminated Ziggler (who lasted nearly 50 minutes) and tried to execute the Broque Kick on Ryback, but Ryback managed to eliminate him. After a few minutes of going back and forth, Cena then eliminated Ryback to win the Rumble, making him the fourth wrestler to win multiple Royal Rumble matches (as he won the match in 2008 as well).[14]

Main event match

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The main event and fifth match on the card featured reigning WWE Champion CM Punk defending his title against The Rock. During the match, Rock attempted to perform a Rock Bottom through the Spanish announce table on Punk, but the table collapsed beneath them. Rock performed a Rock Bottom outside the ring, but Punk kicked out of a pin attempt. When Rock attempted to perform a People's Elbow, the arena went dark and Rock was attacked by an unknown entity, believed by the commentators to be The Shield. When the lights came back on, the assailant(s) were nowhere to be found, and Rock had been driven through the English announce table, allowing Punk to get the winning pin. As he celebrated with the title, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon came out and reminded Punk that if the Shield interfered (which while McMahon said he could not see it, he knew enough to realize what had happened) he would strip him of the title. Before he could however, the Rock said he wanted to take the title from Punk and told McMahon to instead restart the match. McMahon did so, and Rock won the match with a Spinebuster followed by a second People's Elbow, winning the WWE Championship for the eighth time and ending Punk's historic reign at 434 days.[14]

Reception

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The event garnered 512,000 pay-per-view buys, the highest in four years.[15]

Aftermath

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CM Punk, livid that his reign had ended, invoked his rematch clause at Elimination Chamber, but The Rock defeated him and retained the championship. Punk then challenged Cena for his contendership opportunity, which Cena accepted and defeated Punk. Punk later went to WrestleMania to try to end The Undertaker's undefeated streak. After Elimination Chamber, The Rock retired the spinner and bling belt (which was Cena's design for the championship and used by the company for the past eight years) and unveiled a new belt to represent the WWE Championship.

The following night on Raw, John Cena announced that he would challenge the reigning WWE Champion with his winning the Royal Rumble match. With The Rock retaining the championship, this would set up a rematch between The Rock and Cena from last year's WrestleMania. Cena would go on to win the match and the championship, making him a record 11-time WWE Champion.

The 2013 Royal Rumble was the last to feature the World Heavyweight Championship, as well as the last time it was a choice for the winner of the titular match, as the title was unified with the WWE Championship at December's TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event, with the latter being renamed to WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[16] It would in turn be the last Royal Rumble in which two world championships were eligible to be challenged for by the Royal Rumble winner until the 2017 event.[17]

Results

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No.ResultsStipulationsTimes[14]
1PAntonio Cesaro (c) defeated The Miz by pinfallSingles match for the WWE United States Championship[18]7:37
2Alberto Del Rio (c) (with Ricardo Rodriguez) defeated Big ShowLast Man Standing match for the World Heavyweight Championship[19]16:57
3Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) (c) defeated Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow) by submissionTag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship[20]9:25
4John Cena won by last eliminating Ryback30-man Royal Rumble match for a world championship match at WrestleMania 29[21]55:05
5The Rock defeated CM Punk (c) (with Paul Heyman) by pinfall[Note 1]Singles match for the WWE Championship[22]
Had The Shield interfered, Punk would have been stripped of the title.		23:20
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
P – the match was broadcast on the pre-show
  1. ^ Originally, CM Punk defeated The Rock, but the match was restarted after The Shield interfered.

Royal Rumble 2013 entrances and eliminations

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  – NXT
  – Winner
Draw Entrant Order Eliminated by Time[21] Eliminations
1 Dolph Ziggler 27 Sheamus 49:47 2
2 Chris Jericho 25 Dolph Ziggler 47:53 2
3 Cody Rhodes 12 John Cena 27:39 4
4 Kofi Kingston 9 Cody Rhodes 21:18 2
5 Santino Marella 1 00:55 0
6 Drew McIntyre 2 Chris Jericho 02:40 0
7 Titus O'Neil 3 Sheamus 07:30 0
8 Goldust 5 Cody Rhodes 09:41 0
9 David Otunga 4 Sheamus 04:24 0
10 Heath Slater 11 John Cena 15:49 1
11 Sheamus 28 Ryback 37:23 5
12 Tensai 7 Kofi Kingston 05:37 0
13 Brodus Clay 6 Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, Darren Young, Heath Slater & Sheamus 03:47 0
14 Rey Mysterio 13 Wade Barrett 10:33 0
15 Darren Young 8 Kofi Kingston 02:51 1
16 Bo Dallas 21 Sin Cara & Wade Barrett1 21:42 1
17 The Godfather 10 Dolph Ziggler 00:05 0
18 Wade Barrett 20 Bo Dallas 20:34 2
19 John Cena - Winner 26:39 4
20 Damien Sandow 22 Ryback 16:26 0
21 Daniel Bryan 16 Antonio Cesaro & Kane2 07:55 2
22 Antonio Cesaro 18 John Cena 08:50 1
23 The Great Khali 14 Daniel Bryan & Kane 03:08 0
24 Kane 15 Daniel Bryan 01:46 2
25 Zack Ryder 17 Randy Orton 02:34 0
26 Randy Orton 26 Ryback 10:20 1
27 Jinder Mahal 19 Sheamus 02:10 0
28 The Miz 24 Ryback 05:08 0
29 Sin Cara 23 03:27 1
30 Ryback 29 John Cena 09:06 5
  • 1 – Barrett was already eliminated, but after that, Sin Cara pushed Bo Dallas over the top rope. As a result, both Cara and Barrett were able to eliminate Dallas.
  • 2 – Cesaro threw Bryan over the top rope, who was then caught on the outside by Kane (who had already been eliminated). Kane then dropped Bryan to the floor, eliminating him.

References

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  1. ^ "Attendance for 1/27 WWE Royal Rumble, sold out crowd". WrestleView. January 31, 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  2. ^ Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p. 160)
  3. ^ "Specialty Matches: Royal Rumble". WWE. Archived from the original on July 14, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
  4. ^ Waldman, Jon (February 2, 2005). "Statistical survival – breaking down the Royal Rumble". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on October 19, 2015. Retrieved December 19, 2007.
  5. ^ "WWE Royal Rumble". WWE. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  6. ^ Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  7. ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  8. ^ Caldwell, James (July 23, 2012). "CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 7/23: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw #999 – WWE recognizes 1,000 episodes, WWE Title match, Lesnar, Rock, DX, wedding". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  9. ^ Stephens, David. "Raw 1,000 Results – 7/23/12". Wrestleview. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  10. ^ Johnson, Dwayne (December 24, 2012). "Twitter / TheRock: Hush little baby don't say ..." Twitter. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  11. ^ a b Martin, Adam (January 7, 2013). "WWE RAW Results – 1/7/13 (Punk vs. Ryback, Rock returns)". WrestleView. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  12. ^ Canton, John (November 9, 2021). "WWE Survivor Series 2012 Review". WrestleView. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  13. ^ Nemer, Paul (January 22, 2013). "WWE RAW Results – 1/21/13 (Royal Rumble hype)". WrestleView. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Canton, John (January 21, 2022). "WWE Royal Rumble 2013 Review". TJR Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  15. ^ Caldwell, James (May 2, 2013). "WWE Q1 Results: Official PPV buys for Royal Rumble & E. Chamber; PPV revenue up 12 percent, but profits down". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  16. ^ Clapp, John (November 25, 2013). "World Heavyweight Champion John Cena vs. WWE Champion Randy Orton (Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match)". WWE. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  17. ^ WWE.com Staff (November 21, 2016). "The 2017 Royal Rumble Match". WWE. Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  18. ^ Powers, Kevin (January 22, 2013). "U.S. Champion Antonio Cesaro def. The Miz (Pre-Show)". WWE. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  19. ^ Wortman, James (January 14, 2013). "World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio def. Big Show (Last Man Standing Match)". WWE. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  20. ^ Benigno, Anthony (January 14, 2013). "WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No def. Team Rhodes Scholars". WWE. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  21. ^ a b Linder, Zack (December 31, 2012). "John Cena won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match". WWE. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  22. ^ "The Rock def. WWE Champion CM Punk". WWE. January 7, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
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