Royal Rumble

Taking place in the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana, WWF Royal Rumble 2001 is the 14th running of the PPV event, named after its main event, and the second-to-last one before WWF was forced to change its name to WWE. As a result, this can be considered the final Royal Rumble of the Attitude Era by many fans.

Starting with a match between The Dudley Boyz and the team of Edge and Christian for the WWF Tag Team Championship, the main PPV has four matches, all being for certain championship belts, before the Royal Rumble, making it a total of five matches (six if one decides to count the tag team match on the Sunday Night Heat that took place beforehand). The best match was the ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit since the two showed some skill and made the match brutal using a steel chair and the ladder as weapons, but the worst I have to say is the WWF Women's Championship between Ivory and Chyna, as it was so bad due to its length and its end, but we all know the Royal Rumble is the match we want to watch, and this is one of the best ones the company had. One of the competitors allowed in is comedian and future WWE Hall of Famer and Price is Right host Drew Carey, which is a neat way to add a comedic moment when Kane comes in, eliminating himself after Raven comes in and saves him from a chokeslam with a kendo stick attack, although Kane also gets another Royal Rumble moment to cement his legacy as a monster by easily taking out Honky Tonk Man with his own guitar just as he enters and he could have won if not for Stone Cold Steve Austin (although he lasted long enough to be eliminated last). But still, a great PPV.

Along with Backlash, Fully Loaded and Summerslam (all year 2000), this was is one of my favorite WWF pay-per-views. Aside from Ivory vs Chyna (which was inexcusable crap), every match was solid and excellent. The Dudley Boyz vs Edge & Christian for the Tag Team Titles was very exciting and a good starter for the great pay-per-view. Kurt Angle vs Triple H for the WWF Title was very good, though it ended differently than I expected. Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Title was the best match of the night and definitely the best of the year so far.

And of course there was the main event, the Royal Rumble itself. It was very exciting and entertaining, with great action moments and very funny moments too. It featured the returns of the Big Show, Al Snow and Haku. It included funny moments from Drew Carey and the Honky Tonk Man. The overall Rumble was very good, with Stone Cold Steve Austin winning, of course.

Everybody knew Stone Cold was going to win, but the most impressive of the night was obviously Kane. Kane, who has always been one of my favorite wrestlers, was in the Royal Rumble for over an hour. He outlasted everybody and took out more wrestlers than anybody else did. Though he was one of the first ones out, he was also the last one eliminated, and it was almost disappointing to see Austin beat him. You've got to be impressed with Kane. It was truly his night.

As with all the post-Wrestlemania 2000 events up to and through this one, Royal Rumble 2001 is defined more by "attitude" than "talent". Your overall enjoyment of that atmosphere will almost exclusively determine your ranking of this PPV.

Some further thoughts...

-The only reason I care about the Dudley Boyz is their table-bashing antics. The duo in a straight tag match? Ugh.

-Jericho vs. Benoit should be iconic, but to me those were always just two above-average (but no more) talents that were elevated due to the lack of performers in this era.

-What a sham the actual rumble is. Drew Carey? Give me a break. Half the guys entering the ring are absolute nobodies, and the ending is as predictable as the event seems long. Opportunities actually abounded for interesting conclusions, but all were discarded in favor of the safe choice.

-Angle/HHH was clearly the best match on this card--and even that essentially evolved into a Trish/Stephanie catfight, as per the nature of the business at this time.

Clearly, I am not an Attitude Era fan. If you are, your ranking will likely be far higher. But I view such antics as distractions from an enormous talent issue and little more.

The 2001 Royal Rumble was perhaps the greatest ever, most certainly better than the 2000 Royal Rumble. There were four matches, and then the actual Royal Rumble itself. The first match was for the Tag Team Championship, with champions Edge and Christian taking on the Dudley Boyz. After a huge upset by Edge and Christian, Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley captured the Tag Team gold. The second match was for the Intercontinental Championship, in which Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit battled it out in a Ladder Match. Jericho won that match, and became the new Intercontinental Champion. The next match was for the Women's Championship, and Chyna made her return to battle the champ Ivory. After a freak mishap and an injured Chyna, Ivory was able to steal a win and retain the title. Chyna was rushed by medical personnel out of the ring, with Billy Gunn at her side. The fourth match was for the WWF Championship, Kurt Angle with Trish Stratus taking on the challenger Triple H with Stephanie McMahon Helmsley. After a cat fight between Trish and Stephanie, and Vince McMahon carrying the two out of the ring, and Stone Cold Steve Austin's interference, Kurt Angle was able to score a pin and retain the title once again. The main event was of course the Royal Rumble match. It was made up of 30 superstars, including the Hardy Boyz, Bull Buchanan, Hardcore Holly, Kane, Rikishi, Tazz, the Acolytes, Test, Steve Blackman, Billy Gunn, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and even Drew Carey among others. The big suprise was perhaps the return of The Honkytonk Man, Haku, and The Big Show. The winner was Stone Cold Steve Austin who defeated Kane, and will go on to WrestleMania XVII to face Kurt Angle for the World Wrestling Federation Championship. If you have a chance to catch this event, it's definately a must see.

There couldn´t have been a better pay-per-view for the WWF to open the year 2001, because it is almost perfect. This pay-per-view contains 5 matches:

Women´s Championship Match: Ivory vs. Chyna The least interesting match of the evening. I´m not a favorite of women´s wrestling because most women in the WWF can´t wrestle all too well. Except for Chyna of course.

Tag-Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian

All I can say about this match-up is that they have had better ones in the past.

Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

This was a good solid match with two of the better wrestlers within the WWF.

WWF Championship Match: Kurt Angle vs. Triple H This match-up could have been better, but it was entertaining.

30-man Royal Rumble Match The highlight of the evening. The best royal rumble ever, because there were so many great superstars involved in this match, such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Kane, Rikishi, etc. It also contained the surprising return of the Big Show and some guest entrances from The Honky Tonk Man and Drew Carey. This certainly was a perfect rumble.