FIGHTS: @WWE Elimination Chamber '13 ZBF.com Notes

by Bowie Ibarra

Punk uses Rock's finisher on him on a table,
a hilarious moment in the match.

The 'Road to Wrestlemania' goes through the Elimination Chamber.  Once a bloody and violent affair has taken midcard status to some of the other rivalries going on.  Here's are some notes from the event, courtesy of ZombieBloodFights.com.

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
ALBERTO DEL RIO (c) vs. BIG SHOW

-- Wild title defense that sees Del Rio take the victory with his armbar.

US TITLE MATCH
ANTONIO CESARO (c) vs. THE MIZ

-- Miz is an idiot and gets himself DQ'd by accidental knee drop on Cesaro's crotch.  Way to go, stupid.  He kicked him there again for good measure.  What's Miz got against Cesaro's junk?

ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH FOR
#1 WORLD TITLE CONTENDERSHIP
Swagger v. Bryan v. Kane v. Henry v. Orton v. Jericho

-- Jack Swagger entered his pod first, but not before having Zeb Coulter cut a radical racist right promo about 'crossing borders' and 'making things right'.  I like this so much.  Not for Swagger and Coulter being racist assholes, but because it evokes a real emotion in me to boo these pieces of shit.  It's great!  It's variation on a theme of Sgt. Slaughter/Iraq War. 
Say what you will, but I think pro-wrestling is best when it is reflecting the cultural and social discussions of its time period.
-- Thankfully, Jericho and Bryan started the match, so it featured great scientific wrestling with sweet counters by Bryan to Jericho's vaunted Crab hold. 
-- Bryan went for a pin on his tag-partner Kane, but missed it and had to answer for it.  That was pretty hilarious.
-- It was great to see Mark Henry return and clean house in the cage, throwing Orton through a pod and putting away Bryan and Kane with the World's Strongest Slam.  He would fall victim to the 'Lets all defeat the big guy with all of our power moves' by the last three dudes, Jericho, Orton, and Swagger.
--  Loved the finish, with Orton putting away Jericho before suddenly falling victim to a simple scientific rollup from Swagger for the win.

Racist Right Asshole gets to meet the Rich Mexican Aristocrat at WrestleMania!  What a great matchup, and I'll be interested to see how the audience responds to this match.

GRUDGE MATCH
THE SHIELD vs. CENA, SHEAMUS, AND RYBACK
--  It was a pretty good match, with Shield dominating with quick tags and control.
--  The best part for me was looking at Seth Rollins and thinking, 'Wow, that's Tyler Black.  Not even two years ago, he was competing in the Ring of Honor rings.  Now he's punching John Cena in the face.
--  Great finish, with Cena and Ryback going for their finishers.  But Ryback was more concerned about showboating with his march before dropping Rollins.  That left him vulnerable for Roman Reigns to spear the hell out of Ryback, as Sheamus was out of commission after being speared through the guardrail, and Cena was distracted with his own pride for dropping Dean Ambrose in the FU.  Rollins rolls on a hurt Ryback and takes the victory.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. KOFI KINGSTON
-- After Ziggler won, the best part was Big E. Langston returning to the ring to smash Kofi as payback for jumping on him twice on the outside during the match.

DIVA'S TITLE MATCH
TAMINA SNUKA vs. KAITLYN (c)
-- The highlight was Tamina Snuka missing her Superfly Splash.  Kaitlyn retains.

WWE TITLE MATCH
ROCK (c) vs. CM PUNK
--  Start was a great reversal of their first match that started fast.  This time, out of respect for each other's skills, they started slow with some science.
-- Good match up to the point that Punk decided he needed to use underhanded tactics to take out Rock.  I swear, he needs to stick with science, because this skullduggery shit hasn't worked out for him. 
-- Punk hits a Rock Bottom on Rock on the announce table, and the table doesn't break.  That was hilarious.
--  Ref gets knocked out because of Paul Heyman up on the apron, but Punk hits the GTS.  Punk and Heymen set this up, and now Punk could have won had the plan not played out so well.  That's on Punk.
--  WWE refs have brittle bone syndrome, as the next ref got hurt immediately, ala Mr. Glass in 'Unbreakable'.
-- It should be noted that Punk kicked out of a Rock Bottom and People's Elbow.  Ain't that some shit.
-- Rock wins clean, and Punk has no one to blame but himself.

Weeks away from WrestleMania.  We'll see how it plays out from here.

ZombieBloodFights.com endorses Alberto Del Rio, for damn sure.

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BOWIE V. IBARRA is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuester. 

His combat sports themed book, PIT FIGHTERS: BAPTISM BY FIRE, features a luchador from Mexico who transitions to mixed martial arts competition.  It is available in paperback and on Kindle for .99 cents.

Enjoy the blog?  Share it with your friends using the 'Facebook', 'Blogger' and 'Twitter' buttons below.

Agree?  Disagree?  Leave a comment below using your Google+ or Blogger account.

You can network with Bowie and explore his other titles at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com.

FIGHTS: Royal Rumble '13 Road to Wrestlemania notes from ZombieBloodFights.com

by Bowie Ibarra

It was pretty much WWE going 'lets return to the status quo, back to what everybody hated before' so they can pander to the people who are only going to stick around for 'mania and abandon them for the remainder of the year.  Ah, well, it had its moments.

DEL RIO VS. SHOW - WORLD TITLE MATCH

It was about two Rumbles ago now that Del Rio won the entire event.  And at that event, he was the 'Mexican Aristocrat' that was a not-so-subtle angle similar to the immigration issue that was at the forefront of politics at the time.  Now, with the issue being buried and only recently resurrected again, it was a good time for Del Rio to be a smiling good guy.  Either way, I've been a fan and will always be a fan.

Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez made show look stupid by taping his leg to the ring rope and having Del Rio humiliate him, taking the victory.  But Del Rio paid a steep price for it on Raw the next day.  We'll see how this progresses on the road to 'mania.

Photo courtesy WWE.COM

THE ROYAL RUMBLE

It was a good time.  I didn't mind it, and thought it was better than last year.  Here are some notable moments:

  -  Jericho returns at the number 2 spot - My buddy Brandon Stroud made sense of it on his review (which you need to read and follow to get his great 'Best and Worst' blogs).  But for me, it was just whatever.  He showed up before, and I thought it was cool.  But then he bailed afterwards.  I support him, bought the DVD, etc.  I just hope more comes from this run than just getting a check to finance his rock career.

-  Goldust vs. Cody Rhodes aka Brother against Brother - It was a confrontation the Twitterverse was calling for for years, and it went down finally at the Rumble.  It was great, with Cody getting the advantage on his brother and throwing him out.

- Kofi gets kicked out of the Rumble by Rhodes - After taking the time to hop back to the ring after being placed on the announce table by Tensai, Kofi hopped on a chair back to the ring.  But his return was short lived as Rhodes drop-kicked him the f**k out of the Rumble.

- Shemus getting kicked out near the end - I took great joy watching the fans cheer for that POS Shemus before getting kicked out near the very end.  I swear, if that turd won again, I was going to be mad.  So it was great to see him get thrown out at the very end and cheer in front of his supporters.

- Cena wins Rumble - And, for a minute there, I thought someone else was going to win.  This has definitely turned into a Hogan 'I'm sick of you always winning' run.

Photo courtesy WWE.COM

PUNK VS ROCK - WWE TITLE

Wild match up that ended strangely.  But it started strong, with Punk getting in the Rock's face with the title and the announcement like a pro-boxing title fight.  That was cool.

-  Rock 'breaks the count'  - I have to admit, I absolutely positively 'LOVED' Rock going old school and breaking the refs count during some crazy action outside the ring.  I wish I could see this more these days.

- Heyman needed to help pace Punk - I was upset at all the highspots Punk was taking to defeat Rock.  Lots of top rope maneuvers were killing me and taking a toll on Punk.  He grabbed at his knee several times, a clear sign he was not at 100%.  I've had knee surgery and it sucks.  It also takes time to heal.  I didn't want to see Punk re-injure it.  And for that, I felt Heyman needed to pace him on those risks.

- Rock gets jumped in the dark - Rock gets jumped in the dark, somehow, by mystery people, and Punk pins him for the win when the lights come back on.  That was a crappy finish to what was a pretty good match up to that point.  Then it got even more craptacular.

- Rock wins WWE Title - Rock calls off McMahon, who wants to strip Punk of the title with no definitive evidence of The Shield interfering, and gets back into the match and wins it.  I have to admit, I was okay with that, because Punk taking the win that way was kind of crappy.  I hoped he had enough to put a hurting Rock away, but a healthier and stronger Rock got the best of a recovering from knee injury Punk.

Considering that, I would have liked to see a 100% Punk against a 100% Rock.  I think Punk not having a match that pushed him like this one, a tune-up match so to speak, really played to Rock's advantage.  Rock's a beast when it comes to training, and even though he'd not been in the ring for months in a match like this, I think his strength, conditioning, rich WWE main even experience, and healthier overall fitness helped him out.

You got to respect Punk's title run, which is the longest run in recent memory.  And you've got to respect him stepping into the ring running on half a tank to defend the title he earned, loves, and has shown the most respect to.  Rock was just too much for an unhealthy Punk, and he takes the WWE Title down the road to WrestleMania.

============

BOWIE V. IBARRA is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuester. 

His combat sports themed book, PIT FIGHTERS: BAPTISM BY FIRE, features a luchador from Mexico who transitions to mixed martial arts competition.  It is available in paperback and on Kindle for .99 cents.

Enjoy the blog?  Share it with your friends using the 'Facebook', 'Blogger' and 'Twitter' buttons below.

Agree?  Disagree?  Leave a comment below using your Google+ or Blogger account.

You can network with Bowie and explore his other titles at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com.