Royal Rumble
Promotional poster by Mark Romanowski, featuring various WWF wrestlers
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	January 21, 2001
City	New Orleans,Louisiana
Venue	New Orleans Arena
Attendance	17,137
Buy rate	625,000[1]
Tagline	30 men. Every man for himself. One victor.
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous Armageddon Next → No Way Out
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous 2000 Next → 2002

The 2001Royal Rumble was the 14th annualRoyal Rumbleprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV)event produced by theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 21, 2001, at theNew Orleans Arena inNew Orleans,Louisiana. Six matches were contested, including one match for theSunday Night Heat pre-show.

As has been customary since 1993, theRoyal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year'sWrestleMania. For the 2001 event, the winner received a match for theWWF Championship atWrestleMania X-Seven. Themain event was the 2001 Royal Rumble match, whichStone Cold Steve Austin won by last eliminatingKane, which was his third Rumble win, and is so far the only wrestler to win the Royal Rumble match three times. The match also included comedianDrew Carey as a participant. On theundercard,Kurt Angle retained the WWF Championship againstTriple H, andChris Jericho defeatedChris Benoit in aladder match to win theWWF Intercontinental Championship.

TheRoyal Rumble is an annualprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along withWrestleMania,SummerSlam, andSurvivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four",^[2] and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along withKing of the Ring.^[3] It isnamed after theRoyal Rumble match, a modifiedbattle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns aworld championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2001, the winner earned a match for theWWF Championship atWrestleMania X-Seven. The 2001 event was the 14th Royal Rumble and was scheduled to be held on January 21, 2001, at theNew Orleans Arena inNew Orleans,Louisiana.^[4][5]

The event consisted of five matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWF's writers, while storylines were produced on WWF's weekly television shows,Raw andSmackDown!.^[6][7]

At the Royal Rumble was WWF ChampionKurt Angle defending his title againstTriple H in a standard match. The build-up to the match began on the January 8 episode ofRaw Is War, when Angle defended the championship against"Stone Cold" Steve Austin, which ended in ano contest when Triple H interfered and ambushed Austin with a steel pipe. On the January 11 episode ofSmackDown!,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.^[8]

Also taking place at the event was aladder match for theIntercontinental Championship, in which the champion,Chris Benoit, defended his title againstChris 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 atWrestleMania 2000, when Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho challenged Kurt Angle with both his Intercontinental title andWWF European Championship on the line in a Two-falltriple threat match. During that match, both menpinned 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 culminating atSummerSlam in atwo out of three falls match. On the January 4 episode ofSmackDown!, Benoit defended his title against Jericho in a standard match. During the match,Perry Saturn andDean Malenko, Benoit's partners in the groupThe Radicalz, interfered by attacking Jericho, causing him to win the match bydisqualification but not the championship.^[9] On the January 8 episode ofRaw Is War, Jericho teamed with TheHardy Boyz (Matt Hardy andJeff Hardy) against The Radicalz (Saturn, Malenko, and Benoit) in asix man tag team match, which Jericho won by pinning Benoit.^[10] On the January 11 episode ofSmackDown!, 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.^[8]

Before the pay-per-view event began, an episode ofSunday Night Heat, one of the secondary television programs for WWF, was shown. Lo Down (D'Lo Brown andChaz) defeatedKaientai (Taka Michinoku andShoichi Funaki) in atag team match, when Chaz pinned Funaki. Originally, the winning team was to send one of their members into the Royal Rumble match, butDrew Carey wound up being entered instead.^[11]

The pay-per-view event began withEdge & Christian defending theirWWF Tag Team Championship against TheDudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley andD-Von Dudley). Throughout the match, both teams performed many offensive maneuvers, though The Dudley Boyz were able to gain the upper hand. D-Vonpinned Edge after a3D, resulting in The Dudley Boyz winning the WWF Tag Team Championship.^[11][12]

Next, Chris Benoit defended his WWF Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho in a ladder match, which was to serve as the blowoff to their longstanding on-and-off rivalry. Both men performed 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, Benoitdove through the ropes headfirst at Jericho, but Jericho struck him in the face with a steelchair. Jericho also applied theWalls 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.^[12][13][14]

In the third contest,Ivory defended theWWF Women's Championship againstChyna. 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 ahandspringback 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.^[12][15]

Next, WWF Champion Kurt Angle defended the title against 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, butTrish Stratus then tried to interfere on Angle's behalf, only to then get into a catfight withStephanie 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 refereeEarl 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 attacked Triple H and performed the Stone Cold Stunner on him as retaliation for Triple H costing Austin the title several weeks earlier onRaw Is War. 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 Championship, 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 for a WWF Championship match atWrestleMania X-Seven. The first two entrants wereJeff Hardy andBull Buchanan, a member ofRight to Censor at the time. They were joined byMatt Hardy who entered at No. 3, bothHardy Boyz worked together in eliminating Buchanan as well asFaarooq who entered at No. 4. Jeff and Matt then battled each other, and it was during this time thatDrew Carey arrived at No. 5, being the first celebrity entrant in Royal 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) mistressTrish Stratus, McMahon offered Carey a spot in the Royal Rumble match (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 Hardy Boyz 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 tochokeslam him whenRaven entered the ring at No. 7, and attacked Kane with aSingapore 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 theWWE Hall of Fame).^[16]

No. 8,Al Snow came out before the clock went off and attacked Raven. He tried to get in the ring, but the referees stopped him until the buzzer went off. 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 the1998 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 whenBig Show made his return from months of inactivity, entering at No. 23. He eliminatedTest andK-Kwik, then proceeded to chokeslam everyone else. When he got to The Rock, Big Show received a low blow and was clotheslined over the top rope by The Rock. AsCrash Holly made his way to the ring at No. 24, an irate Big Show dragged The Rock under the bottom rope and chokeslammed him through the broadcast 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 The Undertaker. Stone Cold 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 fromWCW) andRikishi made up the last 3 entrants. Austin would actually be the last wrestler to enter the ring as he had just recovered 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 a Banzai Drop on The Rock, but The Rock recovered quickly, giving Rikishi a low blow and causing him to fall over the top rope.

The final four consisted of Kane, The Rock, Austin, and Gunn. Gunn executed 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 The 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 chair shot and executed a Stunner on Kane. 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.^[17]

In 2017, Kevin Pantoja of411Mania gave the event a rating of 9.5 [Amazing], writing, "The best Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View in history and one of the best PPVs in history period. The only thing on the show that keeps it from the perfect score was the garbage Women’s Title stuff. Everything else more than delivered. The WWF Title and WWF Tag Team Title matches were both really good and worked very well. The Royal Rumble match itself is one of the best Rumbles of all-time. Jericho vs. Benoit steals the show though. It is the best singles ladder match I've ever seen. This is just a tremendous event".^[18]

Before his title match at WrestleMania X-Seven, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would try to get revenge on Triple H for attacking him at the pay per view. The two would face off in aThree Stages of Hell match atNo Way Out which Triple H won. Also, Stephanie McMahon would faceTrish Stratus andThe Rock would defeat Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship. The Rock and Austin would face at WrestleMania. Austin would win the match with help from his arch-nemesis Mr. McMahon and begin a heel turn.

A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.

  –Winner^[20]

Kane eliminated 11 men, breaking the record for the most wrestlers eliminated in a singleRoyal Rumble. This record was previously held byHulk Hogan (1989) andStone Cold Steve Austin (1997), who both scored 10 eliminations respectively.

• Official website

• Royal Rumble
• Professional wrestling shows in New Orleans
• 2000s in New Orleans
• 2001 in Louisiana
• 2001 WWF pay-per-view events
• January 2001 in the United States

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