3. The Rock Wins The WWE Title With An Elbow In A Restart
Royal Rumble 2013 was a huge success for the WWE. At 498,000 pay per view buys it is the best selling Rumble since the 2002 event. All credit for that is down to CM Punk and The Rock ... however the finish to their title match was unfortunately nothing short of pathetic. For whatever reason, WWE creative decided to book a finish that was wholly unconvincing. Rock should have been going over strong in the build to Mania, and Punk should have been losing his epic title reign with memorable spirit. Instead, the Shield interfered to give CM Punk the win, but then Vince McMahon emerged and said he was going to strip Punk of the title due to cheating. Rock then chimed in and asked Vince to restart the match instead. Vince did so, and The Rock then landed a weak looking People's Elbow for the win and the title. It was terrible story telling, unrealistic and ill timed. It also made Punk look weak by having him lose to a measly elbow. It wasn't the ending that CM Punk's epic 434 day title reign demanded. It should have been an awesome moment, but the weak and over written finish undermined the transition. This was WWE creative at its very lowest.