Video: Alberto Del Rio wins world heavyweight championship in Last Man Standing match against Big Show

Are you ready to accept Alberto Del Rio as your new world heavyweight champion? You better be because that's exactly what he is after having defeated Big Show for the strap on tonight's (Jan. 11, 2013) episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown on SyFy.

It's not altogether that WWE would want to get the belt off Big Show after his run yielded mediocre results at best. Sure, he's doing the best work of his career but he doesn't need the belt to continue doing that and he's not exactly a major drawing card. The belt could be used to elevate someone else.

Like, say, the next guy the company has earmarked to lead the Latino charge.

That's why Del Rio has been turned babyface and given the promotion's second most important championship. What's curious about all this is the timing. Why do this now, on a taped show that featured The Rock returning to the show named after him for the first time in a decade? The ratings were sure to be fine without word getting out that a title switch would be happening, so why do it now? Why not at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV)?

Those questions likely won't receive answers and that's just fine. The fact of the matter is it happened and Show put Del Rio over huge. The two worked a Last Man Standing match and Del Rio got up after not one but two WMDs and a nearly immeasurable amount of offense. It took a lot to put Show away, sure, but "ADR" comes out of this looking pretty damn good.

And it was a really fun match.

Enjoy the video:

For complete results and the live blog from SmackDown click here.