Royal Rumble (2001) was the fourteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It 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 Championship against Triple H and Chris Jericho defeated Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit in a ladder match.
Storylines[]
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 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. 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.
At the Royal Rumble was WWF 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 Stone Cold 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 scheduled Angle to defend his title at the Royal Rumble 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.
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. On the January 8 episode of Raw Is War, Jericho teamed with The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) against The Radicalz (Saturn, Malenko, and Benoit) in a six man tag team match, which Jericho won by pinning Benoit. On the January 11 episode of SmackDown!, Jericho demanded a title match at the Royal Rumble. Benoit offered to give Jericho any type of match he wanted and Jericho chose a ladder match.
Results[]
| No | Results | Stipulation | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1H | Lo Down (D'Lo Brown and Chaz) defeated Kaientai (Funaki and Taka Michinoku) | Tag team match | |
| 2 | The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) defeated Edge and Christian (c) | Tag team match for the World Tag Team Championship | |
| 3 | Chris Jericho defeated Chris Benoit (c) | Ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship | |
| 4 | Ivory (c) (with Steven Richards) defeated Chyna | Singles for the WWF Women's Championship | |
| 5 | Kurt Angle (c) (with Trish Stratus) defeated Triple H (with Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) | Singes match for the WWF Championship | |
| 6 | Stone Cold Steve Austin won last eliminating Kane | 30-man Royal Rumble match for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania X-Seven | |
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Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations[]
A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.
| Entrant | Eliminated by | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Hardy | 4 | Himself | 6:36 |
| 2 | Bull Buchanan | 1 | Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy | 2:08 |
| 3 | Matt Hardy | 3 | Jeff Hardy | 4:45 |
| 4 | Faarooq | 2 | Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy | 0:58 |
| 5 | Drew Carey | 5 | Himself | 2:54 |
| 6 | Kane | 29 | Austin | 53:46 |
| 7 | Raven | 9 | Kane | 8:51 |
| 8 | Al Snow | 8 | Kane | 7:08 |
| 9 | Perry Saturn | 10 | Kane | 5:02 |
| 10 | Steve Blackman | 7 | Kane | 3:08 |
| 11 | Grand Master Sexay | 6 | Kane | 1:03 |
| 12 | The Honky Tonk Man | 11 | Kane | 1:16 |
| 13 | The Rock | 28 | Kane | 38:42 |
| 14 | The Goodfather | 12 | Rock | 0:14 |
| 15 | Tazz | 13 | Kane | 0:10 |
| 16 | Bradshaw | 18 | Undertaker | 17:40 |
| 17 | Albert | 20 | Kane | 15:53 |
| 18 | Hardcore Holly | 21 | Undertaker | 14:04 |
| 19 | K-Kwik | 16 | Big Show | 7:53 |
| 20 | Val Venis | 22 | Undertaker | 10:22 |
| 21 | William Regal | 14 | Test | 2:01 |
| 22 | Test | 15 | Big Show | 2:08 |
| 23 | The Big Show | 17 | Rock | 1:23 |
| 24 | Crash Holly | 19 | Kane | 2:31 |
| 25 | The Undertaker | 25 | Rikishi | 10:45 |
| 26 | Scotty 2 Hotty | 23 | Undertaker & Kane | 0:46 |
| 27 | Steve Austin | WINNER | 9:43 | |
| 28 | Billy Gunn | 27 | Austin | 7:22 |
| 29 | Haku | 24 | Austin | 2:51 |
| 30 | Rikishi | 26 | Rock | 2:35 |
Other on-screen personnel[]
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See also[]
| Royal Rumble |
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