Royal Rumble (2013)

The 2013 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It was the 26th annual Royal Rumble event and took place on January 27, 2013, at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The event was based around the men's Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-man battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and the winner received a world championship match at WrestleMania. For the 2013 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 29. 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, ending Punk's reign at 434 days; this was also Rock's first championship since 2002. On the undercard, John Cena won the 2013 Royal Rumble match, marking his second win, after 2008, and making him the fourth multi-time winner, after Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. In another prominent match, Antonio Cesaro defeated The Miz to retain his WWE United States Championship. This was the last Royal Rumble event to feature this version of the World Heavyweight Championship as it was unified with the WWE Championship in December at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. As a result of the unification, the World Heavyweight Championship was immediately retired while the WWE Championship became known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This subsequently made it the last Royal Rumble event to include two eligible options for the Royal Rumble match winner until the 2017 event.