CM Punk
Punk defended his WWE Championship against The Rock at the Royal Rumble on January 27, 2013. A stipulation was added to the match where if The Shield interfered, then Punk would be stripped of the title. Punk had originally pinned The Rock to retain his championship after The Shield attacked and put The Rock through a table while the arena lights were out. Vince McMahon came out to the entrance ramp and started to announce that Punk would be stripped of the championship, but he instead restarted the match at The Rock's request. Punk ended up losing the match, ending his record-setting reign at 434 days. Punk would receive a rematch for the championship on February 17 at the Elimination Chamber, with the stipulation that if The Rock was disqualified or counted out, he would lose the WWE Championship. Rock was able to pin and defeat Punk in the match to retain the championship. On the February 25 episode of Raw, Punk faced off against Royal Rumble winner John Cena for his number one contendership to the WWE Championship, but was defeated.