2001 Royal Rumble Review

It's Rumble time!!! Another one of my persnal favorite ppvs. The 2001 Rumble took place in New Orleans and your hosts are JR and The King.


Match #1

Tag Team Championship Match

Edge And Christian Vs The Dudley Boyz


Brawl to start. Dudleyz take over on Christian. D-Von gets an elbow for 2. Sideslam gets 2. D-Von takes a cheapshot from the outside and gets suplexed and the heels work him over. Edge neckbreaker gets 2. D-Von rams them together and rolls Edge up for 2. Conchairto, but D-Von ducks it, and makes the hot tag to Bubba. Stungun on edge then bubba bomb on Christian. Wazzup on Edge and D-Von gets the table. Christian cuts him off then in a scuffle the Dudleyz try for 3D but Edge spears Bubba to stop it. E+C try a wazzup on Bubba but he rolls through and D-Von pushes Christian off and he headbutts Edge on the way down. Dudleyz score the 3D on Edge to win the belts at 9:59. Good opener. 3 stars.



Drew Carey is backstage and is talking to Trish Stratus. McMahon gets annoyed and puts him in the Rumble.



Match #2

Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match

Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho


Jericho chops away, then Benoit goes for the Crossface, but Jericho rolls into the walls of jericho. Benoit posts him outside and hits a shoulderbreaker. Jericho tries the springboard dropkick, but Benoit moves out of the way. They head for the ladder, but Benoit posts him again and grabs the ladder. Jericho gets tossed into the steps and Benoit sets up the ladder for the first try. Jericho stops him with an electric chair drop off the ladder. Jericho grabs the ladder and rams it into Benoit’s head, and then again to the abs. Awesome shot as Jericho does the seesaw mortal combat uppercut with the ladder on Benoit. Jericho sets the ladder onto the top turnbuckle, but Benoit whips him into it. Jericho bails and Benoit chases with a tope, but Jericho absolutely kills Benoit on the dive through the ropes with a chairshot. I remember watching this live and thinking about how there is no way that Benoit can be taking all these bumps and not be getting hurt legit. 6 years later, we see the end result. Jericho suplexes him on the railing and tries to ride the ladder down onto him, but Benoit moves and rams the ladder into Jericho’s face. Benoit rams Jericho into the ladder shoulder first in the corner. Jericho with a dropkick puts Benoit down, and Jericho crotches him in the ladder’s rungs in the corner. Then he pulls the ladder backwards and they crash to the mat. Jericho grabs it first, but Benoit dropkicks it on him and hits a backdrop suplex. Jericho missile dropkicks the ladder into Benoit then climbs for the belt. Benoit belly to back suplexes him off to the outside in another dangerous spot. Benoit climbs, but Jericho pushes him backwards so hanging upside down and Jericho puts on the walls on top of the ladder then shoves him off. Benoit tips the ladder and Jericho takes a nasty hotshot on the top rope and they are KO'd. Jericho gets the ladder first and flattens Benoit, but Benoit pulls him off and puts him in the Crossface on the way down to further damage the bad shoulder. Jericho rams him into the corner with the ladder, and they both climb it. Jericho falls off, but Benoit misses the swandive headbutt from the top of the ladder. Looking back, it's sad watching Benoit doing these headshots into the canvas. Jericho tries putting the ladder right on Benoit to hold him down, but Benoit powers it off and pushes it over and Jericho takes a nasty whiplash on the top rope. Benoit climbs but Jericho gets a chair and whacks Benoit then tips the ladder and Benoit takes the worst bump EVER IMHO when he lands on the top rope stomach first, bounces up and off then whacks and bounces his hip and lower back off the apron before going to the floor. Jericho gets the title at 18:45. This might be my favorite one on one ladder match. 4 stars.


Drew is in the dressing room and intrdouces himself to Kane in a funny spot.



Match #3

Womens Championship Match

Ivory Vs Chyna


Chyna squashfest then she does her handspring thing and that is enough for her to "injure" her neck and collapse to the mat and get pinned at 3:32. They do the whole stretcher job and King gets in the ring along with Billy Gunn and it's like a disgusting spoof of the Owen Hart accident. DUD!!!


Match #4

World Heavyweight Championship Match

Kurt Angle w Trish Stratus Vs HHH w Stephanie McMahon Helmsley


Angle gets a hiptoss and HHH bails. Back in, HHH beats Angle down in the corner, but Angle backdrops him and goes to the arm. Brawl outside, which HHH wins. Inside HHH drop toeholds Angle indian deathlock. HHH works over the leg then Angle gives him an enzuiguri to break. HHH goes back to the knee and JR and King yak about Man On The Moon sucking balls. Brawl outside, HHH meets the stairs. Back in, Angle misses a blind charge and gets posted, and HHH chairshots the knee. He drops Angle kneefirst on the stairs and it's gonna be dead in a few moments I think. HHH goes does a deathlock variation, and Angle fights out, but walks into a facebuster. HHH slaps a figure four on him and uses the ropes, but Trish gets involved and suddenly a catfight with Stephanie erupts, and the crowd pops lowder than the actual match. Vince struts out to stop them. They continue fighting right around him, drawing a big pop from the crowd. Vince picks up Trish and carryies her out, but Steph knocks them over and goes to town again, before everyone eventually makes it back to the dressing room. Angle gets a small package for two. He shoves HHH to the post on a figure four attempt, and it's a punch out. DDT gets 2. Atomic drop and german suplex get 2. Russian legsweep and Angle goes up top but HHH stops him and gets the razor's edge for 2. Pedigree is blocked with a slingshot. Angle goes up top and actually hits the BIG moonsault but whacks that bad knee on the canvas. Hunter posts Angle and goes to the top but Angle armdrags him off, no ref. Angle goes to help him up, but HHH sandwitches him between the steps and Angle pretty good. Back inside Angle gets a belly to belly. HHH comes back with the Pedigree, no ref. Austin is here!!! He rolls the ref in stuns HHH and Angle gets a pin to retain yet again at 24:07. Angle was alot like The Honkey Tonk Man at this time. This makes 3 ppvs in a row where he retained through pure luck or sneakiness. Im going 3 1/2 stars.


Match #5

2001 Royal Rumble


Jeff Hardy is #1 and Bull Buchanon is #2. They do a mini match then #3 Matt Hardy runs in and they make short work of Bull. They duke it out for a bit then #4 Faarooq shows up and knocks em both down. They eventually overwhelm him, and he catches Jeff on a poetry in motion and almost pitches him but Matt gets him with a twist of fate followd by a swanton bomb is enough to get rid of him. #5 is Drew Carey and he hangs out in the corner while the dopey Hardyz fight up to the top rope and Matt gets thrown off in a vertical suplex position and he pulls Jeff right along with him and they splat outside. Crowd pops big for Carey who celebrates then #6 is? Kane........Carey offers money and Kane gives him a Jason Vorhees look then goes for a chokeslam but #7 Raven makes the save and Drew eliminates himself and highfives some people on his way home. Raven gets beaet up then goes outside for weapons and #8 Al Snow runs in and attacks Raven for putting him out for a few weeks. Snow brings in his bowling ball and hits Kane with it then gives Raven the 7-10 split. Snow and Raven gang up on Kane and drop toehold him on a trash can then #9 Saturn comes in and they all beat down Kane with alot of effort. #10 is Blackman and he brings his bag in and goes to town with the sticks and attacks everyone. #11 is Grandmaster Sexay and he grabs some nunchucks and pairs off. Kane gets pissed, grabs a trashcan and gives Sexay a shot that bounces him off the top rope and out backwards, in one of my favorite eliminations. He tosses Blackman then gives him a lid shot on the skin the cat attempt. Snow over the top, big boot to Raven and he's gone. Saturn takes a stick shot to the face and gets thrown out and #12.....THE HONKEY TONK MAN!!! This dude never really ages. He gets on the mic and tells Kane to hold back while he sings his song. Kane is WTFing at this point, then decides to grab the guitar and blasts Honker and throws him out. #13....IT'S THE ROCK!!! I didn't expect him so soon. They do a match contained within the rumble. #14 is Goodfather and Rock puts him right out, he sucks in these things. Kane chokes out Rock and #15 Tazz runs into the hands of Kane who hoists him up and punches him off the top rope. Maybe they should of super imposed a WWF logo over Kane's face then put an ECW logo on Tazz's head just to drive home what theyre getting at. #16 is Bradshaw and he kills Rock with a clothesline as the elimination nuttiness settles down. #17 is Albert and he gets Kane good with a scissor kick. #18 is Hardcore Holly and everybody makes vauge elimination attempts on eachother. #19 is K-Kwik followed by #20 Val Venis. Holly and Venis get slammed in stereo then #21 William Regal shows up and works on Kwik. #22 is Test and he tosses Regal rather quickly. #23 is........THE BIG SHOW!! I marked for that one. First he clotheslines Test then throws Kwik out and chokeslams all around. He goes for Rock, but a lowblow and some punches and a final clothesline but Show out in a shocker. Show gets pissed and puts Rock through JR and Kings table. Crash is #24 but the camera's are preoccupied with Rock/Show feud #2 at the moment. Everyone gangs up on Kane then #25 Undertaker rides in to a big cheer and helps Kane out and they completely clear the ring. They pause until #26 Scotty 2 Hotty comes out and the crowd lets out a collective awwww!!. Poor Scotty gets double chokeslammed and thrown and #27 Stone Cold Steve Austin blows the roof off but gets jumped and busted open by HHH on the way in. The brothers pick Rock's bones and #28 Billy Gunn makes things a little easier for the Rock. So who's #29 when Rikishi won the right to be #30??? It's Haku!!! Im probably one of 12 people in the country that marked out when he showed up. The WCW Hardcore champ jumped ship like overnight and is in the WWF for one last run. Haku doesn't give a damn, he's the crazy islander dude who isn't scare of anybody. He chops away and frobutts Taker and Kane and Gunn works on Rock. #30 Rikishi attacks Austin on the way down and Austin goes nuts on him. Now were down to the finals as Austin sends Haku packing. Rikishi gets the upset of the match when he superkicks out Taker rather easily. He tries the banzai drop on Rock but a lowblow from Rock and he shoves the thong wearing fatty out. Final Four: Austin, Rock, Kane, and Gunn. Austin tries a stunner on Gunn but he counters to the fameasser. He goes to toss Austin but gets countered and thrown out. Rock/Austin staredown and the biggest slugfest of the night breaks out and the crowd is loving it. Rock bottom is blocked and Austin hits a stunner and Rock flops around. Kane goes after Austin, but gets thesz pressed. Austin then turns into a rock bottom and Rock tosses Kane through the ropes and tries to ease Austin out but Kane sneaks back in and dumps them both but it's the Rock who gets peeled off and eliminated. Chokeslam on Austin and Kane gets a chair, but a suprise stunner drops him. Austin gets the chair and waits for Kane to get up and swings away. Kane is dizzy and Austin gets him out with one big chargine clothesline to win the rumble for a third straight time. Wiki clocked it at 1:01:00 or so, I got 58:43. Another good Royal Rumble. Im going 4 stars.


Overall Opinion: The suprise entrants and Drew Carey made it entertaining, but I won't go perfect score on it because it's one of those Rumbles where it was the 5 big main eventers then you had everyone else being fed to them in rapid succession. The hardcore rumble was fun though, and Kane got new life breathed into his character with his 55+ minute run. Im going 4 stars. Undercard was solid except for the womens match which was almost a guarantee to suck anyway. A kickass show, buy it.


Final Score: This show is equal to the 2000 Royal Rumble by my score. This one also gets 6.5 stars out of 10.