Royal Rumble '01

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '01

January 21, 2001 from the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA

 

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

 

This is a card that is not messing around. Four title matches, including all of the top three belts, and the Rumble. 2000 was one of WWF's most successful years ever by any metric you care to use, and coming into Rumble/Wrestlemania season it was time to finish off floundering WCW once and for all.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Dudley Boyz def Edge & Christian (c) in 9:58- The Dudleyz are coming into this match with concussions due to chair attacks from E&C on Raw the previous week. This is well before post-playing NFL injuries made concussions what they are today. We get a jump start while the video package was still playing. E&C slide out and try to leave but the Dudleyz chase them down. D'Von and Edge settle in back in the ring with D'Von hitting a neckbreaker for 2. Hiptoss and flying back elbow from D'Von on Christian. Dudleyz double shoulderblock. Bubba Ray jabs Chrisitan down in the corner while still selling his hurt head/neck. Christian gets a rope assisted flying headscissors in the corner, but Bubba Ray responds with a side suplex for 2. Edge tags in and runs into a D'Von powerslam for 2. Christian hits D'Von in the back of the head from the apron to finally turn things around for E&C. Back suplex from Edge. He cuts D'Von off with a swinging neckbreaker for 2 and continues the attack on the head. Edge sets up for a piledriver. D'Von counters and slingshots Edge into Christian, who'd positioned himself on the top rope, then rolls Edge up for 2. Double clothesline. Christian distracts ref Tim White and we get the phantom tag spot. E&C get chairs and set up. D'Von ducks a conchairto, double clotheslines E&C and tags. Hot tag run from Bubba Ray. Hot shot on Edge. Bubba Bomb for Christian. Edge takes the Whazzup Drop. Get the tables time. Christian cuts D'Von off before the table has fully emerged. Bubba Ray ducks an attempted belt shot from Edge and rolls him up for 2. Christian goes for the Unprettier but D'Von makes the save. 3D setup. Edge spears Bubba Ray before it can hit! Cover and Bubba Ray kicks out! Now E&C do their own version of the Whazzup Drop, going gloriously over the top on the WHAZZUPs. But before it can hit Bubba Ray rolls Christian over, and D'Von pushes Edge off the top rope into Christian's crotch. 3D on Edge! The Dudleyz get the pin and are champions again! Amazingly, this is only the second time they've won the titles and the first time they've been champs since losing the Triangle Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 2000. That was damn good formula tag stuff, and yet more proof these teams (and the Hardyz) didn't need the gimmicks to have a good match with each other. ***1/4

 

We get footage from earlier tonight of Drew Carey arriving at the arena. He's here because WWF is helping promote an improv show he's putting on PPV the next weekend. For those too young to remember, before Carey became the new Bob Barker and took over as host of The Price is Right he was a fairly famous comedian and even had his own sitcom on ABC for nearly a decade.

 

We then go live to the Trips/Steph locker room. Steph assures Trips her hatred of Trish Stratus won't affect his match tonight. Carey then invades their locker room. After the usual pleasantries Carey asks where Vince is. Steph offers to take Carey to Trish's locker room instead, with Trips sniggering in the background. We then cut the APA's office for the night. Faarooq and Bradshaw flash their Rumble entry numbers to each other, then both decide they need another beer.

 

Ladder Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho def Chris Benoit (c) in 18:43- The battles between the Canadian Chrises was one of the best feuds of 2000, so why not run it back one more time, and add a ladder what the hell. Immediate slugfest jump start. Jericho hits a back elbow and clothesline. Both guys make early attempts at their signature submission holds that are fought off. Benoit tosses Jericho shoulder first into the post. Shoulderbreaker from Benoit. Jericho responds with a flying forearm. Benoit dodges the springboard dropkick, causing Jericho to splat on the floor right on his hurt arm. He whips Jericho arm first into the post, then Benoit goes and gets the ladder. They do an obvious setup for a baseball slide, but it was thankfully too obvious. Benoit pulls the ladder out of the way, then tosses Jericho into the stairs. Benoit sets the ladder up in the ring and climbs. Jericho lifts him off the ladder and hits an electric chair. He runs the ladder into Benoit's face! Another ladder shot in the corner. Jericho sets the ladder up on top of the corner. Benoit reverses the whip, sending Jericho into the ladder and causing them both to collapse to the floor. Benoit loads up for a tope suicida. JERICHO BLOCKS IT WITH A CHAIR! Fantastic. Jericho drops Benoit on the barricade, gets on the apron, and tries to fall on Benoit with the ladder but Benoit dodges. Benoit runs the ladder into Jericho on the floor and gives him a chairshot. Back in Benoit props the ladder up in the corner and runs Jericho into it. Another go, Jericho reverses the whip and Benoit takes the shot. Jericho lifts Benoit up, wraps his legs up in the ladder, climbs himself, and drops Benoit with a back superplex WITH THE LADDER! Benoit dropkicks the ladder into Jericho and hits his own regular back suplex. The ladder goes up in the corner again and Benoit gets whipped into it. Jericho goes to the apron, hops down and pulls the ladder over the top rope, ricocheting it into Benoit's jaw! Then Jericho goes up top, gives Benoit the ladder, and missile dropkicks it into him. Ladder setup in the middle and Jericho climbs. Benoit cuts it off and dumps Jericho over the top to the floor. Now Benoit climbs. Jericho fights up to join him. He grabs Benoit's legs and stretches him out over the ladder top with the Walls! Amazing visual. He dumps Benoit down and just gets a hand on the belt before Benoit kicks the ladder down. Jericho runs Benoit over with the ladder. He tries coming off the ladder. Benoit grabs him and hooks on the crossface! Jericho taps, but that's irrelevant here. Benoit CRANKS back on it. After letting go he gives Jericho another shoulder shot on the post. Jericho hot shots Benoit into the ladder and squashes him in the corner with it. Both guys climb the ladder in the corner. Benoit fights off a ladder superplex and Jericho falls down. Benoit goes for the diving headbutt off the top of the ladder. Jericho dodges! Jericho sets the ladder on top of Benoit and climbs. Benoit lifts the ladder up and dumps it over! Now Benoit climbs. Jericho tries to stop him with chairshots but Benoit shrugs them off. Jericho pushes the ladder over and Benoit FLIES to the floor! Almost all the way into the aisle. Jericho climbs. Benoit tries but he can't get his broken body back up into the ring, and Jericho gets the belt to win and get the title back! The fourth of Jericho's record nine IC title wins. As always from these two that was physical, hard hitting, and mostly psychologically tight. My only little quibble is Jericho's hurt arm didn't get used or sold as much as it could have. ****1/2

 

Drew Carey is in Trish's locker room trying to get somewhere with her. Nothing doing there. Vince strolls in. Carey asks him about promoting his improv show. Vince responds by saying you want to do some improv, why not enter the Rumble! Trish pushes by saying she'd be "super impressed" by it and Carey agrees.

 

WWF Women's Championship: Ivory (c) (w/Steven Richards) def Chyna in 3:27- Chyna is coming back from having her neck broken at the hands of a Right to Censor spike piledriver. Jump start #3 with Chyna clotheslining Ivory as soon as she hits the ring. Hair tosses from Chyna. Corner whips. She sets Ivory on the top rope and snap mares her off. Corner forearms and stomps. Again she places Ivory up top and this time punches her off down to the floor. Ivory tries to escape through the crowd. Chyna follows, her presses her, holds her up for a hell of a long time, and deposits her back ringside. Back in she slams Ivory. Richards gets in the ring, takes a clothesline and gets tossed right back out. Chyna goes for the handspring elbow. She stops well short, nudges Ivory, then goes down in a heap holding her neck. Ivory drapes an arm over and gets the pin. 1/4*

 

After the bell Chyna still hasn't moved a muscle since going down. Lawler gets up from commentary to check on her while JR goes into serious voice. When they show replays they fortunately go for a different angle that doesn't show Chyna pulling up before hitting Ivory so obviously. Chyna's partner Billy Gunn and a bunch of officials come in, then come the medics. They backboard and stretcher Chyna out. They were trying to do the whole work shoot injury angle here to lead into WM but it doesn't come off as well as it could have, everyone saw through it.

 

Steph and Trish get catty with each other at the hairdresser's. I'd assume it'd be like one of those Real Housewives of (insert random city here) if I watched one of those things. Probably just as real too. After that we cut to Carey again. A gofer presents him with his gear for the match and he asks no one in particular if that makes him an official wrestler now. Probably a good thing he said that in an empty room. Then he says "Who's the guy in the goofy mask?" as Kane walks by. Carey tries to engage him in conversation. Kane has no interest and walks away. Elsewhere elsewhere Tiger Ali Singh's wrestlers D'Lo Brown and Chaz are arguing which of the two of them should be in the Rumble. Vince comes in and kills it immediately by saying their slot's been taken by someone else. Who? Drew Carey of course. Another deserving wrestler passed over because of celebrity chasing.....oh hell, it's 2001 D'Lo and Chaz, who am I kidding.

 

Setting up the WWF Championship match: I wish I could say this grew out of the big Trips/Steph/Angle love triangle from the summer, but no, that's been completely forgotten about. This started when Vince awarded Trips the #1 contender slot because of nepotism. To try to mess with his opponent, Angle hired Trish as his "business manager". This is during the period where Vince was using Trish as his personal bit of fluff (insert a Mel Brooks "It's good to be the king" here) so he didn't take kindly to that. But who took it even less kindly was Steph. She was already furious at her dad for messing around with Trish and how that hurt his relationship with Linda, but now she's going to be in her husband's opponent's corner? Unacceptable. All in all this is as much Steph vs Trish as it is Angle vs Trips.

 

WWF Championship: Kurt Angle (c) (w/Trish Stratus) def Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) in 24:18- Despite all the soap opera storylines this is still heel vs heel. Angle wrestles the whole match with the straps down, not that it meant anything back then. Lockup! HHH works an arm wringer. Angle does a fancy escape into a fireman's carry takedown and an ARMBAR. Corner break. Speed run with Angle getting a hiptoss and clotheslining HHH 360 to the floor. Huge "Angle sucks" chant. HHH goes on offense when he gets back in and lays in some corner forearms. Angle gets a backdrop and does some arm work. A trio of suplexes from Angle hit and he covers for 2. HHH rolls out again. Angle follows. HHH runs him into the barricade. Back in HHH drop toe holds Angle into a reverse Indian death lock. HHH hits a dragon screw! We don't see nearly enough of that in a WWF/E ring. He goes for another but Angle counters with an enzuguri for 2. HHH goes back to the leg. After another loud HHH spot call they do the corner whip dosido and HHH does the Trips flip in the corner to the floor. Angle pulls HHH into the post, then gives him a stair shot. Back in HHH dodges a corner clothesline. He goes to post Angle's knee again and gets it this time. Steph distracts Hebner and HHH gives the knee a chairshot. Kneebreaker on the stairs. Back in HHH hits a couple of chop blocks and drops elbows on the knee. He hooks on a side Indian death lock. I love it when HHH breaks out the classics. Angle pummels HHH with punches to break himself free. HHH hits the facebuster for 2. He gets back on the leg, kneedropping the knee off the ropes. Figure four! That gets a near fall. HHH works over to get some extra rope leverage. Trish tries to get in the ring. Steph pulls her out. They slap each other. Full on cat fight on and over the Spanish announce table! I don't know why Savinovitch is getting out of the way, let them fall on you. Vince comes out, tries to separate them, can't, tries to carry Trish out, Steph stops that, and finally they slowly work their way to the back. After multiple minutes focused on that the camera finally gets back on the match that's still going on. HHH goes for another figure four but Angle small packages him for 2. After another elbow drop to the knee HHH goes for the figure four again. Angle pushes him out into the corner. Slugfest. Angle hits a DDT for 2. Inverted atomic drop into a German suplex from Angle for 2. That's a nice combo that I don't think he kept. Russian leg sweep. Still selling the knee, Angle starts climbing for the moonsault. HHH low blows him. He lifts Angle up and Razor's Edges him off the ropes! Hi Scott Hall. Angle kicks out! HHH hooks up for the Pedgiree. Angle counters. HHH pushes Angle out into the corner, but Angle bounces off and falls into HHH's crotch! Angle climbs up again. The moonsault hits! But he hurt his knee on the landing and can't cover right away, allowing HHH to kick out. HHH tosses Angle to the floor. He tries coming off the apron but it takes out Hebner, who'd come out to the floor for reasons. Angle takes a post shot. HHH climbs up top back in. Angle springs to the second rope and armdrags him off! Cover but no ref. Angle goes out to try to get Hebner up. HHH pulls Angle into the stairs, with Hebner right underneath him so now Hebner's even deader than he was before. HHH goes over and gets the belt. Angle cuts the belt shot off and hits a belly to belly suplex. Then he picks the belt up. Kick wham Pedigree! Cover but still no ref. Now HHH goes out to try to revive Hebner. Austin runs out! He attacks HHH! Belt shot from Austin to HHH! Austin drags Hebner up and deposits him in the ring. Then he goes back in. Stunner to HHH! Austin leaves. Angle crawls over and puts an arm over HHH. Hebner very slowly crawls over, does the super slow count, and Angle gets the pin to continue his unlikely title reign. After the bell a furious HHH storms to the back, presumably looking for Austin. There's definitely some really good chemistry here, but all the focus on Steph and Trish plus the overbooking at the end kept this from reaching the heights it otherwise might have. Angle's initial title reign might have been a flop from a booking perspective, but there's no denying he continues to consistently improve every time out. ***1/2

 

Royal Rumble- Traditional 2 minute intervals tonight. The main storylines going into this year's Rumble are the impending Rock/Austin showdown and if it would lead to the WM main event or not, and if so how would it happen, Undertaker and Kane seeming to be on the same page again and what that could mean for everyone else, and the fact that it had already been determined that Rikishi would come in at #30. Oh, and now Drew Carey.

1 & 2. Jeff Hardy and Bull Buchanan- Slight clash of styles to start here. Jump start #4 tonight. Buchanan's not wearing his tie, which has to be an RTC bylaws infraction. Good power vs speed stuff to open with Jeff doing another great Ricky Morton impression. Both try eliminations.

3. Matt Hardy- Reinforcements are here. The Hardyz hit Poetry in Motion on Buchanan. Double clothesline and Buchanan is eliminated. The Hardyz hit hands, circle, and go at it! Matt tries to delete Jeff but that doesn't work. Yet. Back suplex from Matt, jawbreaker from Jeff. Matt goes over the top but not out. When the countdown hits they call peace to get ready for the next guy.

4. Faarooq- The Hardyz jump but Faarooq hits a double clothesline. Poetry in Motion is blocked. Jeff saves Matt from taking a Dominator. Twist of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo and they toss Faarooq out! Then Jeff immediately tries to dump Matt! Matt lands on the apron, gets back in and is not happy. The shirts are off! The brothers slug it out! Jeff hits Whisper in the Wind during the countdown.

5. Drew Carey- Getting this out of the way early. Carey's "gear" is a full Adidas track suit. He gladhands with all the fans while slowly working his way to the ring. Meanwhile the Hardyz continue to fight it out. Jeff misses a shotgun dropkick to Matt's back so has to get up and push him over to the apron. Carey gets in the ring. The Hardyz ignore him, both go over the top rope and fight up the corner. They both crash down to the floor! Carey's all alone in the ring.

6. Kane- Carey's fucked. He wants the refs to help him, like that would do any good. Kane takes his sweet time stalking around the ring to make Carey sweat more. Then he gets in and sets the corner pyro off. Carey offers a handshake. Then some money! Kane goozle! The countdown hits zero before anything else can happen.

7. WWF Hardcore Champion Raven- He saves Carey with a kendo stick shot. Carey's had enough. He climbs over the top rope and drops to the floor, eliminating himself. Kane pounds away on Raven. They almost blow a side suplex spot. Raven sets off a fire extinguisher in Kane's face, then goes under the ring for more toys. Welcome to the hardcore Rumble. Al Snow runs in and attacks Raven! He's in the Rumble so commentary presumes he's next. The refs stop him getting in until the countdown is over.

8. Al Snow- Now he can come in. Trash can lid shots all around. Snow tosses yet more toys in. Bowling ball shot on Kane. He rolls the bowling ball into Raven's crotch! There's trash all over the ring. Kane no sells trash can shots. Snow and Raven slowly work him down with more and drop toe hold him into a can.

9. Perry Saturn- Too bad WWF couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge Saturn's history with Raven here. Instead Saturn tries to do some proper wrestling and works on Kane's knee. Everyone takes turns on Kane and slowly manage to pummel and sleeper hold him down to the mat.

10. Steve Blackman- He's got his sticks and he's using them as the hardcore Rumble continues. We get an all around hardcore brawl.

11. Grandmaster Sexay- He grabs a can lid and uses it. Kane finally says enough is enough. Sexay is eliminated. There goes Blackman. Snow's out. Raven's out! Saturn's gone! All by Kane's hand. Kane is all alone in the ring as the countdown hits.

12. The Honky Tonk Man- What? Yup, Honky's back for a one-off Rumble surprise appearance. He takes a mic and stops everything because he knows his fans want him to sing his song. He does while Kane looks on, letting the moment play out. When Honky hits the chorus Kane grabs the guitar! He nails Honky with his own guitar! Then tosses the handle away in a superb casual way. Goodbye Honky. Kane is killing it tonight. This also ends the hardcore portion of the Rumble, which was a fun departure from the usual.

13. The Rock- Business picks up. Rock's going to have to go much longer than last year if he wants to go back to back. He slugs away on Kane and hits a diving clothesline. Kane blocks a toss, hits a clothesline, and spends the rest of the period working Rock over.

14. The Goodfather- Rock intercepts him coming in. Smackdown punches and Goodfather goes over the top and is gone! Kane continues to keep Rock in peril.

15. Tazz- As soon as Tazz hits the ring Kane places him on the top rope and punches him down to the floor! Thanks for coming. Rock finally starts to get some offensive momentum on Kane, hitting a Samoan drop.

16. Bradshaw- He goes right for Kane. Rock thinks he and Bradshaw have an agreement to work on Kane. Bradshaw disagrees, clotheslining Rock. Rock hits Bradshaw with a spinebuster but then gets clotheslined by Kane.

17. Albert- Four way brawl as things start to settle in a bit for the next stretch. Gotta let it breathe at some point.

18. Hardcore Holly- Albert hits Bradshaw with the Albert Bomb. We get more Rock elimination teases. Rock then almost but not quite gets Kane over.

19. K-Kwik- He quickly gets schooled by Albert. Bradshaw and Kane plant Hardore and Kwik at the same time.

20. Val Venus- Kane hits a spinebuster. Bradshaw almost murders Kwik with a spear tackle that definitely could be a roughing the passer flag in modern football depending on who the QB is.

21. WWF European Champion William Regal- Quick European uppercuts on Kwik. Rock spinebusters Venus, then Venus gets Rock almost over again.

22. Test- As soon as he gets in he unceremoniously tosses Regal. Test then stomps Albert down in the corner. This was after their tag team broke up.

23. The Big Show- Another "WHAT?" surprise entrant. He had been out for months. On screen it was called an injury, but in reality he'd been shuffled down to OVW to try to polish his work up as well as work on his physical condition. Show wastes no time, tossing Test out, then press slamming Kwik out. Chokeslams for everyone else in the ring. I mean EVERYONE. Even Kane, who does a great job kicking his legs like he's fighting it the whole way down. Well, almost everyone. Rock is last and he low blows Show before he can hit it. Rock slugs away, charges, and eliminates Show! Can't say he didn't maximize his barely plural minutes. Show throws an absolute hissy fit, trashing the English announce table as the countdown hits.

24. Crash Holly- The focus is still on Show as he drags Rock out. He chokeslams Rock through the announce table! After that Show finally leaves. In the ring, everyone that's left is again trying to pound Kane down. The group has him teetering on the ropes as the clock hits zero.

25. The Undertaker- Presumably perfect timing for Kane. Taker still rides his bike out, then gets in and does indeed save his brother. The Brothers of Destruction team up and absolutely clear the ring out. Bradshaw, Crash, Hardcore, Albert and Venus are all tossed out in short order. Rock is still laying in the announce table remains. Kane and Taker stare down and slowly go nose to nose, but don't fight.

26. Scotty2Hotty- Scotty is understandably very reluctant to get in the ring. When he gets in he predictably gets knocked around. Taker and Kane go into full lions playing with their food mode with him. After a double chokeslam Scotty is eliminated. Rock is still recovering so the Brothers turn to the entrance to see who's next.

27. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin- GLASS SHATTER! AUSTIN POP! But before he gets near the ring HHH runs in and attacks him from behind! While that's happening Rock gets back in the ring. The Brothers pound him down while HHH destroys Austin around the stage area. Austin's bleeding.

28. "The One" Billy Gunn- He tries to fight the Brothers. The ref gaggle comes out and drags HHH out. We can see Austin isn't just bleeding, he's absolutely gushing blood. Taker hits a huge leaping DDT on Rock.

29. Haku- One more surprise entrant? Why not. Haku, as Meng, had won the WCW Hardcore Championship literally the week before at Sin, then bolted the company. When he left their Hardcore title was retired. This is his first WWF appearance in nearly a decade. He's got one hell of an afro going on too. He takes the fight to the Brothers. Austin's still lying in the stage area. Huge "Austin" chant from the crowd.

30. Rikishi- Austin's slowly walking back toward the ring. Rikishi makes the mistake of stopping to look at Austin. Austin attacks him! He throws Rikishi in the ring, then finally gets in himself. Austin pummels Gunn down in the corner, then eliminates Haku. Taker chokeslam on Rikishi. Taker tosses Rock but Rock lands on the apron. Headbutts from Taker on Rikishi go nowhere. A superkick from Rikishi eliminates Taker! Rikishi drags Rock into the corner and goes for the Banzai drop. Rock gets up and low blows him, then dumps Rikishi over to eliminate him!

FINAL FOUR: Kane, Rock, Austin, Gunn- Gunn counters a Stunner and hits the Fameasser. Austin shrugs that off and tosses Gunn out to eliminate him. Rock DDT on Kane. Austin and Rock lay in opposite corners and stare daggers at each other. Then they get up and stare some more while the crowd eats every bit of it up. Austin is still covered in blood. They meet in the middle and here we go! Back and forth slugging. Austin fights a Rock Bottom off. Stunner! Kane grabs Austin. Thesz Press on Kane! Rock Bottom on Austin! Rock tosses Kane, but clearly THROUGH the ropes so everyone knows he's not eliminated. Austin and Rock slug it out again. Austin tries to lift Rock but Rock eye rakes. Rock lifts Austin up. Kane comes from behind! Rock goes over and is eliminated, but Austin *just* manages to hang on! Austin pounds away on Kane against the ropes, runs back, charges....into a goozle! Chokeslam! Kane throat slashes to say it's over. Austin low blow! Kane goes out and gets a chair. Austin cuts it off. Stunner! Austin gets the chair and pummels Kane in the head with it repeatedly! One more charge and Kane is eliminated! Austin wins and is going to Wrestlemania! It's Austin's record third career Rumble win, a record that still stands to this day. It's also the fourth time someone had won from #27, which was the record for a long time until #30 overtook it in '22 and '23. No one's won from magic #27 since 2001. It needs to happen again.

 

That was a phenomenal Rumble. The best since the best one ever back in 1992. It was well laid out with fun moments sprinkled throughout, some good surprise entrants, the early stretch going full hardcore was well done, and it had good drama with Austin probably the most likely winner, but by no means a foregone conclusion as there's several different directions they could have gone even with Austin vs Rock the plan at WM. And while Austin winning and becoming the first three time winner huge, so was Kane's performance. He was this year's ironman at 53:46, set a new single Rumble record with 11 eliminations (sadly not mentioned on TV), and was the perfect buffer between Austin and Rock at the end to keep them from interacting more than necessary. He rose to the booking with legitimately one of the best performances of his career. ****

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A tremendous IC title ladder match, good tag and WWF title matches, and a great Rumble. Can't ask for much more than that as WWF kicks off one of the greatest Wrestlemania seasons of all time.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A