2. VS Big Show (Last Man Standing Match - Smackdown - January 11th, 2013)
Fresh off of his face turn, Del Rio was still looking to completely catch on with the WWE Universe. He was getting some decent face pops, depending on what city WWE was in at the time, but the pops probably weren't on the level that the company was hoping for. That may or may not have been because he was feuding with Big Show, who hasn't had "peak" crowd responses in a long, long time. This Last Man Standing Match was an impressive performance from Alberto, working against a man who outweighs him by nearly 200 pounds, in a match where the object is to beat your opponent until they cannot physically answer a ten count. That's a difficult thing to do against any opponent, of any size. This forced Del Rio to use his head a lot, having to come up with creative ways to get Show down. Chair shots, not breaking submission holds in the ropes, causing Show to hit himself with the ring steps, and then burying Show under the announce table to get the win. It was a very physical match, telling a good story, with Show stalking Del Rio and trying to wear him down, and Del Rio building face sympathy, giving him his best crowd reactions to date. It was more versatility from Del Rio, and he showed the WWE Universe that he
can play a face, as people had questions up until this point. Unfortunately, his face run didn't exactly last very long, and he was back to the status quo in no time.