Royal Rumble (2001)

Royal Rumble (2001)
Tagline(s) 30 men. Every man for himself. One victor.
Information
Promotion World Wrestling Federation
Sponsor(s) MCI
Date January 21, 2001
Attendance 17,137
Venue New Orleans Arena
City New Orleans, Louisiana
Pay-per-view chronology

Armageddon (2000) Royal Rumble (2001) No Way Out (2001)
Royal Rumble chronology

Royal Rumble (2000) Royal Rumble (2001) Royal Rumble (2002)

Royal Rumble (2001) was the fourteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It was presented by MCI's 1-800-COLLECT and took place on January 21, 2001, at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The main event was the Royal Rumble match, which Stone Cold Steve Austin won by last eliminating Kane to win the match, making it his third Royal Rumble win. The match also included comedian Drew Carey. On the undercard, Kurt Angle defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Triple H and Chris Jericho defeated Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit in a ladder match.

Background

The main event at the Royal Rumble was the Royal Rumble match, a battle royal in which wrestlers entered the ring at regular timed intervals of approximately 120 seconds, attempting to eliminate each other by throwing opponents over the top rope. The winner of the match received a match for the WWF World Championship at WrestleMania X-Seven. The Rock began discussing the Royal Rumble on the January 4 episode of SmackDown!, when he promised to win the Royal Rumble match for the second year in a row to earn the title match at WrestleMania.[1] On the following week's episode of SmackDown!, Vince McMahon, the WWF Chairman, added Stone Cold Steve Austin to the match. On the same episode, Rikishi defeated The Rock, Kane and The Undertaker for the right to enter at number 30 in the Royal Rumble match.[2]

At the Royal Rumble was WWF World Champion Kurt Angle defending his title against Triple H in a standard match. The build-up to the match began on the January 8 episode of Raw Is War, when Angle defended the championship against Steve Austin, which ended in a no contest when Triple H interfered and ambushed Austin with a steel pipe. On the January 11 episode of SmackDown!, Vince McMahon announced that Angle would defend his title at the Royal Rumble event against Triple H. Leading up to the event, both men spoke about the match, with Triple H claiming that Angle only held the championship because he allowed him to, and Angle denying this.[2]

The Royal Rumble included a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, in which the champion, Chris Benoit, defended his title against Chris Jericho. In the match, the title belt was suspended above the ring from the ceiling, and the only method to win was to climb a ladder to retrieve the belt. Their feud started at WrestleMania 2000, when Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho challenged Kurt Angle with both his Intercontinental title and WWF European Championship on the line in a Two-fall triple threat match. During that match, both men pinned each other in one fall each to win the respective championship from Angle. Since that event, Benoit would hold three pay per view victories over Jericho esp. at SummerSlam in the best two out of three falls match. On the January 4 episode of SmackDown!, Benoit defended his title against Jericho in a standard match. During the match, Perry Saturn (Perry Satullo) and Dean Malenko, Benoit's partners in the group The Radicalz, interfered by attacking Jericho, causing him to win the match by disqualification but not the championship.[1] On the January 8 episode of Raw Is War, Jericho teamed with The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) against The Radicalz (Saturn, Malenko, and Benoit) in a six man tag team match, which Jericho won by pinning Benoit.[3] On the January 11 episode of SmackDown!, Jericho demanded a title match at the Royal Rumble, and Benoit offered to give Jericho any type of match he wanted. Jericho then announced that their match would be a ladder match.[2]

Event

Before the pay-per-view event began, an episode of Sunday Night Heat, one of the secondary television programs for WWF, was shown. Lo Down (D'Lo Brown and Chaz) defeated Kaientai (Taka Michinoku and Shoichi Funaki) in a tag team match, when Chaz pinned Funaki. Originally, the winning team was to send one of their members into the Royal Rumble match, but Drew Carey wound up being entered instead.[4]

Preliminary matches

The PPV was notable for actor/game show host Drew Carey participating in the main event by entering himself in the Royal Rumble match.

The pay-per-view event began with a tag team match for the WWF World Tag Team Championship, where the champions, Edge and Christian, defended their titles against The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von). Throughout the match, both teams performed many offensive maneuvers, though The Dudley Boyz were able to gain the upper hand. D-Von pinned Edge after a 3D, resulting in The Dudley Boyz winning the WWF World Tag Team Championship.[4][5]

The following match saw Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit defending his title against Chris Jericho in a ladder match, which was to serve as the blowoff to their longstanding on-and-off rivalry. The match featured both men performing a number of attacks and maneuvers on one another in an attempt to disable their opponent long enough to climb the ladder and retrieve the title belt suspended above the ring. At one point in the match, Benoit dove through the ropes headfirst at Jericho, but Jericho struck him in the face with a steel chair. Jericho also applied the Walls of Jericho at the top of the ladder onto Benoit. The end of the match came when Jericho pushed over the ladder while Benoit was ascending it, causing Benoit to fall out to the outside of the ring. Jericho then climbed the ladder and retrieved the Intercontinental Championship belt.[5][6][7]

The third contest had WWF Women's Champion Ivory against Chyna in a standard match for the championship. Both women attempted to gain an advantage over the other, with Chyna controlling much of the match. The end of the match came when Chyna attempted a handspring back elbow on Ivory, who was in the corner of the ring. Chyna, however, fell to the canvas and (in storyline) injured her neck. Ivory then covered her for a successful pinfall, retaining her championship. Following this, commentator Jerry Lawler went into the ring to check on Chyna, and she was removed from the ringside area on a stretcher.[5][8]

Main event matches

The penultimate match saw reigning WWF World Champion Kurt Angle being challenged by Triple H, who had been named number-one contender by his (then storyline) father-in-law Vince McMahon. The match began as a mat based, hold for hold contest, but Trish Stratus then tried to interfere on Angle's behalf, only to then get into a catfight with Stephanie McMahon, who was in Triple H's corner. Stratus (Vince McMahon's storyline mistress) and Stephanie (McMahon's daughter and then storyline wife of Triple H) had been involved in their own feud due to vying for power as the WWF's "dominant female". After the fracas involving the two ladies on the outside (which had to be broken up by Vince himself), both Triple H and Angle accidentally hit the referee Earl Hebner, causing him to roll out of the ring. Triple H grabbed the title belt and tried to hit Angle with it, only to receive a belly-to-belly suplex. Angle then tried to hit Triple H with the belt, but Triple H ducked and gave him a Pedigree. As Triple H went outside to revive the referee, Stone Cold Steve Austin rushed into the arena, beating Triple H and giving him the Stone Cold Stunner as retaliation for Triple H costing Austin the title several weeks earlier on Raw. As Austin left the arena, Angle crawled over on top of Triple H to cover him for the pin, while Hebner recovered and made the count. Angle won the match and retained the WWF Title, with a very angry Triple H vowing to get even with Austin for costing him the match.

Closing the show was the traditional 30-man Royal Rumble match, where the winner would receive a WWF Championship match at WrestleMania X-Seven. The first two entrants were Jeff Hardy and Bull Buchanan (a member of Right To Censor at the time). They were joined by Matt Hardy who entered at No. 3, both Hardys worked together in eliminating Buchanan as well as Faarooq who entered at No. 4. Jeff and Matt then battled each other, and it was during this time that Drew Carey arrived at No. 5, being the first celebrity entrant in Rumble history.

Earlier in the night, Carey was backstage looking to speak with Vince McMahon about how to put together a successful pay per view. After thinking Carey was trying to hit on his (storyline) mistress Trish Stratus, McMahon offered Carey a spot in the Rumble (in hopes of Carey getting pummeled) as a way to promote his upcoming Improv All-Stars pay per view. Once Carey entered the ring, he stood aside, and watched as the Hardys eliminated each other. Kane then entered at No. 6. Carey tried to shake his hand as well as bribe him with cash, but Kane grabbed Carey by the throat and was about to chokeslam him when Hardcore Champion Raven entered the ring at No. 7, and attacked Kane with a Singapore cane. This gave Carey the opportunity to eliminate himself safely by climbing over the top rope (this appearance would 10 years later lead to Carey being inducted in the "celebrity wing" of the WWE Hall of Fame).[9]

Kane would then dominate the match, eliminating all of the wrestlers who came between No. 7 to 11. The Honky Tonk Man (who had not appeared in the WWF since the 1998 Royal Rumble) came in at No. 12 and started singing his entrance theme "Cool, Cocky, Bad", only to be greeted by a guitar shot to the head by Kane and eliminated immediately after. The Rock entered at No. 13 and started brawling with Kane. The ring began to fill up in the next few minutes, and the tide turned when The Big Show made his return from months of inactivity, entering at No. 23. He eliminated Test and K-Kwik, then proceeded to chokeslam everyone else. When he got to The Rock, Show received a low blow and was clotheslined over the top rope by The Rock. As Crash Holly made his way to the ring at No. 24, an irate Big Show dragged Rock under the bottom rope and chokeslammed him through the announcers' table. Just when the other wrestlers worked together in trying to eliminate Kane, The Undertaker made his arrival at No. 25 and saved Kane, and both of them eliminated everyone in the ring except The Rock (who was still unconscious due to Big Show's assault on him). Scotty 2 Hotty entered the ring at No. 26 and was quickly beaten up and eliminated by both Kane and Undertaker. Steve Austin entered at No. 27, but before he could enter the ring, he was assaulted and bloodied by Triple H who retaliated against Austin for costing him the match with Kurt Angle earlier. The Rock rolled back into the ring and battled with both The Undertaker and Kane. Billy Gunn, Haku (who was a surprise entrant after making his return from WCW) and Rikishi made up the last 3 entrants. Austin would actually be the last wrestler to enter the ring as he had just recovered from the beating and was coming to the ring at the same time as Rikishi, the 30th entrant.

Once everybody had entered the ring, Austin eliminated Haku, and Rikishi superkicked the Undertaker, eliminating him. Rikishi then attempted to do a top-rope Banzai Drop on The Rock, but The Rock recovered quickly, giving Rikishi a low blow and causing him to fall over the top rope.

Stone Cold Steve Austin won the 2001 Royal Rumble match.

The final four consisted of Kane, The Rock, Austin and Gunn. Gunn hit the Fame Asser on Austin, but Austin recovered quickly and eliminated Gunn. The Rock and Austin then battled each other after tossing Kane through (but not over) the ropes. Kane came back in moments later and tried to eliminate both Rock and Austin, who were fighting near the ropes. The Rock was eliminated, while Austin held on to the ropes. After a minute or so of fighting Austin, Kane went outside the ring, grabbed a steel chair and tried to use it to hit Austin. Austin avoided the chairshot and hit Kane with a Stunner. As Kane got up, Austin hit him in the head three times with the chair and then clotheslined him over the top rope to win the Rumble for a record third time.[10] Lasting nearly 54 minutes in a runner-up performance, Kane's 11 eliminations became the most by a single Rumble participant, beating the previous record of ten, held by Hulk Hogan at the 1989 Royal Rumble and Steve Austin at the 1997 Royal Rumble event.[10] This record was broken by Roman Reigns 13 years later in the 2014 Royal Rumble, when he eliminated 12 other superstars.

Aftermath

Kurt Angle entered a feud with The Rock again and would go on to fight him at No Way Out, the next WWF Pay-Per-View, for the WWF Championship in a singles match. Kurt Angle would lose the match and the championship.

Triple H continued his feud with Steve Austin at No Way Out in a 3 Stages of Hell match. Triple H defeated Austin two falls to one, and ended the feud.

Results

No. Results Stipulations Times[4][11]
1H Lo Down (D'Lo Brown and Chaz) (with Tiger Ali Singh) defeated Kaientai (Taka Michinoku and Funaki) Tag team match 01:57
2 The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) defeated Edge and Christian (c) Tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship 09:59
3 Chris Jericho defeated Chris Benoit (c) Ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship 18:44
4 Ivory (c) (with Steven Richards) defeated Chyna Singles match for the WWF Women's Championship 03:32
5 Kurt Angle (c) (with Trish Stratus) defeated Triple H (with Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) Singles match for the WWF Championship 24:16
6 Stone Cold Steve Austin won by last eliminating Kane 30-man Royal Rumble match for a WWF Championship match at WrestleMania X-Seven 1:01:55
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • H – indicates the match was broadcast prior to the pay-per-view on Sunday Night Heat

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.[12]

Draw[12] Entrant[12] Order[12] Eliminated by[12] Time[13]
1 Jeff Hardy 4 Matt Hardy 06:36
2 Bull Buchanan 1 Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy 02:08
3 Matt Hardy 3 Jeff Hardy 04:45
4 Faarooq 2 Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy 00:58
5 Drew Carey 5 Himself 02:54
6 Kane 29 Stone Cold Steve Austin 53:46
7 Raven 9 Kane 08:51
8 Al Snow 8 Kane 07:08
9 Perry Saturn 10 Kane 05:02
10 Steve Blackman 7 Kane 03:08
11 Grand Master Sexay 6 Kane 01:03
12 The Honky Tonk Man 11 Kane 01:16
13 The Rock 28 Kane 38:42
14 The Goodfather 12 The Rock 00:13
15 Tazz 13 Kane 00:10
16 Bradshaw 18 The Undertaker 17:40
17 Albert 20 Kane 15:53
18 Hardcore Holly 21 The Undertaker 14:04
19 K-Kwik 16 Big Show 07:53
20 Val Venis 22 The Undertaker 10:22
21 William Regal 14 Test 02:01
22 Test 15 Big Show 02:08
23 Big Show 17 The Rock 01:23
24 Crash Holly 19 Kane 02:31
25 The Undertaker 25 Rikishi 10:45
26 Scotty 2 Hotty 23 The Undertaker & Kane 00:47
27 Stone Cold Steve Austin - Winner 09:43
28 Billy Gunn 27 Stone Cold Steve Austin 07:22
29 Haku 24 Stone Cold Steve Austin 02:51
30 Rikishi 26 The Rock 02:35

References

  1. 1 2 "WWF SmackDown! January 4, 2001". WWF SmackDown. 2001-01-04. UPN.
  2. 1 2 3 "WWF SmackDown! January 11, 2001". WWF SmackDown. 2001-01-11. UPN.
  3. ↑ Nemer, Paul (2001-01-08). "WWF RAW is WAR Results (January 8, 2001)". WrestleView. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Royal Rumble (2001) Information". Hoff Co, Inc.: CompleteWWE.com. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  5. 1 2 3 Powell, John. "Surprises dominate Rumble 2001". Slam Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  6. ↑ Royal Rumble (2001) (DVD). World Wrestling Federation. 2001-12-21.
  7. ↑ The Ladder Match (DVD). WWE Home Video. 2007.
  8. ↑ "Royal Rumble 2001". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  9. ↑ Drew Carey WWE HOF bio - WWE.com
  10. 1 2 "Royal Rumble 2001 review".
  11. ↑ "Royal Rumble Results". Prowrestlinghistory.com. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 "Royal Rumble Result". WWE. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
  13. ↑ "Royal Rumble Elimination Info". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 2009-04-17.

External links

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