WWE 'Royal Rumble 2013' match previews: Featuring CM Punk vs. The Rock and The Royal Rumble Match

WWE's Royal Rumble goes down on Sun. Jan. 27, 2013 from US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona, live on pay-per-view (PPV) starting with the free pre-show at 7:30 p.m. ET and waltzing right into the main show at 8 ET/5 PT.

The show features

CM Punk vs. The Rock for the WWE Championship. Punk won the title at Survivor Series 2011, and has held the belt for 433+ days. He has defeated all challengers, and has proven to be the most dominate champion in the modern era.

However, The Rock has come back to try and reclaim the title. Vince McMahon has announced if The Shield interferes in any way, Punk will be stripped of the WWE Championship. Can Punk prove that he really is "The Best in the World?" Will The Rock put an end to this historic reign? Or will there perhaps be some sort of outside interference, despite Vince's best attempts to keep the match on the up-and-up?

The co-main event

will be the traditional Royal Rumble Match: 30 entrants enter at 90-second intervals and attempt to toss their opponents over the top rope. The last man standing will win a shot to face either the WWE Champion or World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania 29. This has always been WWE's most exciting match of the year. Who will be making a surprise appearance? What crazy spots will be pulled out? And which wrestler will be standing tall at the end of the night?

You'll just have to watch in order to find out!

In other action,

Alberto Del Rio will put his newly won World Heavyweight Championship on the line against the man he took it from, The Big Show, in a Last Man Standing Rematch. Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan) will defend the Tag Team Championship against Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow), and Antonio Cesaro will go one-on-one with The Miz for the United States Championship in the free pre-show streaming live on WWE.com, YouTube.com, Facebook.com, and WWE Active.

In this StoryStream, we'll have previews of each and every match on the card. Stay tuned!

Click the links on each match below for the preview:

Royal Rumble
CM Punk vs. The Rock
Alberto Del Rio vs. Big Show
Team Hell No vs. The Rhodes Scholars
Antonio Cesaro vs. The Miz