Punk/Rock - The Actual Match

[Deleted]

Not the outcome of the match. There are already a million topics discussing that.

The actual match itself, did you enjoy it? I haven't seen many opinions at all on this yet.

I myself marked for Rock winning but I gotta say, the match as a whole didn't live up to the hype at all for me. Even before the restart stuff I was already thinking how disappointing it was.

Unless WWE has a really crappy year in-ring I can't see this even being in the top 10 when it comes time to discuss the 2013 match of the year.

[BigJerichool222]

The match was REALLY dull, 70% of it was on the outside of the ring. I assume that this was intentional because they're going to step it up at EC or WM if it's a triple threat.

[BigWill]

It wasn't great, but it was about what I'd expect from a Rock match these days. It was about the same quality as Rock/Cena at Mania.

[Deleted]

First 2/3rds of it was seeing how many different camera angles we could get of Rock laying on the ground moving slightly.

It felt like Punk threw him to the ropes to the outside like 8 times.

[Error]

Rock was blown up in 3 minutes yet again and Punk either had his best sell job going or his knee was really f***ed. Throw in a crowd that didn't give a shit about it since the end was telegraphed thanks to Cena winning and it had nothing. They tried but they were in a no win spot.

[DrizzlinShytes]

I thought Rock/Cena was miles better and that is crazy to even think. I thought Punk/Rock would have been much better. It wasn't bad, but Rock barely got any offense. Maybe he was winded or they were trying old school philosophy where the heel beats up the face for 15 minutes before the comeback. But fans weren't conditioned for that, plus the crowd was winded from the Rumble (which was quite good).

["American Cream" Dusty Loads]

It kinda sucked. I was hoping even if Punk lost that it'd still be an epic match. Rock was really f***in blown up, it was kinda funny seeing how Rock was sweating buckets and Punk looked fine 5 minutes into the match.

[Spearmint*]

It wasn't amazing but it wasn't awful. Seemed in the same kind of grove as Rock/Cena but I think they wisely made it a bit shorter as Rock was gassed again.

Punk tried hard though. I'm kind of glad we didn't get a lot of "rock bottom 1..2..no! gts 1..2..no! rock bottom second time 1..2..no! gts second time 1..2..no!" as there's been way too much of that in WWE recently.

[Deleted]

Yeah, while Rock's physique is obviously phenomenal, I don't think his conditioning is quite there to go all out in a long 20/30 minute main event match like Punk and Cena are used to doing and it hurts his singles matches.

I didn't notice it quite as much in the Cena match at Wrestlemania (which I thoroughly enjoyed) but last night's match seemed like it was moving at a snail's pace.

[The Ichi]

What's interesting is that I saw Punk whisper into Rocks ear a couple of times (I usually don't notice these things). Punk was controlling the match.

[Error]

Jan 28, 2013 12:37:41 GMT -5 The Ichi said:

What's interesting is that I saw Punk whisper into Rocks ear a couple of times (I usually don't notice these things). Punk was controlling the match.

99% sure the heel does in every match unless they are too inexperienced to do so.

[crowwreak was WRONG]

Storyline sense: Punk kicked out of one and a half Rock Bottoms, which was awesome


Realism: Did Rock even DO any cardio training in the last 9 months?

Especially compared to Ziggler Sheamus and Jericho, who all Went over half an hour without that much break going on.

[Sparkybob]

I thought it was alright. Nothing special thought.

[BiloxiParish]

I wanted to love the match but it failed my expectations.. I thought it went by super fast.

[repomark]

I was let down by it I have to say, although that might be a side effect of me expecting an absolute classic after some really good build up. I will re watch it again tonight with lower expectations and see how I rate it, but I have to agree with the sentiment that it was nowhere near as good as it could and perhaps should have been.

[Spearmint*]

Jan 28, 2013 12:43:24 GMT -5 crowwreak was WRONG said:

Realism: Did Rock even DO any cardio training in the last 9 months?

Probably not, right now he is just about maintaining his shape and muscle definition which he doesn't need a whole lot of cardio to do.

He was training around my friends area and apparently would only go into the gym for standard muscle intensive work-outs in 1 hour bursts a day.

It's no surprise he gets blown up really, he's working to get a actor screen-ready body not a pro-athlete week in week out performance body.

Which is why a lot of people say Punk doesn't look that "impressive" as he is all about cardio which was part of the reason he used to do 60min matches a lot.

It'll be interesting to see if Rock starts to mix up his training now his recent movies should have finished production and he's got a lot of WWE dates coming up.

[Abdullah]

I love the Rock, but we're to gauge the success of his return based on his ring-work, it'd be pretty bad. Epic builds for matches that don't hold up, in terms of quality.

[Ron Woodsman aka Shempaholic]

I was very underwhelmed by the match. I think it's partly because it came after the Rumble.

[willywonka666]

I was surprised the Rock had his ass handed to him as much as he did. It was kinda one sided for about 60% of it and it reminded me of the Undertaker and the trouble he seems to have getting through a match.

[Deleted]

Not to beat a dead horse, but Rock's cardio is seriously terrible. I get that his "fitness" training these days is all about sarcoplasmic hypertrophy in order to keep up his look, but it's pretty pathetic when Ryback of all people can put on a better performance than him. He really needs to spend some time on a treadmill.