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A+ Match of the Day

I love the 2001 Royal Rumble.

It had a little something for everyone. There was plenty of star power, some "ECW" segments, lots of blood, lots of overlapping storylines and a hell of a build. Not really much of a doubt of who was going to win but when something is well done that doesn't matter to me as much. The flow in this match was smooth as well, only two guys lasted more than 17 minutes and both of them made it to the final four.

If you've never seen this match, enjoy, if you've seen it, enjoy it again. Scott gave this **** on re-rant and I'm closer to ****1/2 for what it's worth. The rant for that is here, it was an excellent PPV overall.

Take it away JR and King!

Comments

  1. This is the most badass rumble.

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  2. This may be my favorite Rumble ever. More all-out action than 1992, more star power than 2010, less guilt over the finish than 2004... yeah, I love this match.

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  3. Ah yes, my favorite Rumble. I remember actually watching this on the scrambled channels on cable back in 2001, although my brother kept fucking it up by flipping to the porn channels every now and then.


    Great action, only about 1 dead spot to speak of, and the final ten minutes are epic. And the Austin/Rock faceoff was amazing and had the crowd going nuts - a great contrast to ten years later when they tried to do it with Cena and Orton and met crickets.

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  4. That should ADD a point... Trying to bribe Kane was awesome!!!

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  5. Just listen to the crowd when Austin and Rock lock eyes when they're both laying on the crowd. THAT CROWD IS NUTS!

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  6. That one appearance got Drew Carey into the WWE Hall Of Fame

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  7. I remember watching this and they had me believing Kane actually had a chance of winning after he threw out Rock.

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  8. damn all that blurring!

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  9. Yup I always love those Rumble spots where they tease the WM main event, which just makes the Cena/Orton deal from 2011 even funnier.

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  10. When did Lawler leave? Was it the RAW right after this? I wish Heyman had been around to call this Rumble match.

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  11. Yeah, Austin was mad over here and yet somehow in 4 months time he went the ol "things are getting stale let's go heel" route?


    No. In fact, I'd argue Austin wasn't getting stale at all, and there were enough differences year to year that kept the character intriguing.


    1996 - 1997: I'm just going to terrorize Bret Hart and never let this feud end
    Late 1997: I'm going to be the first person to Stun authority figures including the boss, Vince McMahon
    1998: Now I'm the number one guy in the company, I main event pay per views and for kicks I do crazy-ass things on Raw that often involve vehicles.
    1999: I have to overcome a lot of obstacles to get back to the main event of Mania, I have a fun little pit-stop as CEO, and later in the year I show a lot of vulnerability, long to Foley at Summerslam and HHH at No Mercy
    2000: not even around, so no opportunity to grow stale
    late 2000-early 2001: I am back, and because, gee, I GOT RAN OVER, I am now paranoid, crazy, and more aggressive than ever. I would pretty much grab any weapon and try to use it if it means I get the victory, see Kane at the Rumble of HHH at No Way Out. I may not be able to always defeat superstars cleanly, but I am vicious enough to get a victory by whatever means necessary.

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  12. Right after No Way Out is when his wife got released and he walked out in protest.

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  13. ...and then she took him to the cleaners not long afterward.


    What a twat.

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  14. Agree...him pulling cash out of his windpants pocket was a genuine laugh-out-loud moment for me. Great stuff...

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  15. I still love Kane's "Fuck this shit" moment of killing all the early-portion Jobbers during the hardcore phase of the match. Then Honkytonk Man comes in for an awesome nostalgic moment and gets destroyed, too.

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  16. Love makes you do stupid things, especially if you're the one with a penis.

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  17. WWE was on fire at this point. Great show, great match.

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  18. I just watched that cena-or ton segment for the first time. I've never heard a crowd that quiet during a rumble.

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  19. CTRL + ALT + DEL, Restart

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  20. Exactly, and it showed you the type of person the Kat was.

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  21. That's actually a decent talent pool. There's just not enough options now that we only have 1 World Title. Unless Bryan gets thrown in at the last second, or Brock, or anyone for that matter of value, it's either Punk going the distance or Batista winning it.

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  22. Now he'd offer Kane...A NEW CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

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  23. Agreed, that might be the weakest line-up I've ever seen for a Rumble. No star power AT ALL... ... .... ...

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  24. Why the snark?? Why can't Brock, Big Show, Bryan, Bray, Kane be in the thing? That would actually help the star power. Seriously, 3 people listed right now (at best) have a chance of winning it. Watch the above Rumble and tell how much better it would have been without Rock, Stone Cold, Kane and Taker. It wouldn't have.

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  25. It wasn't snark - I actually thought you were being sarcastic, which is why I gave you an up-vote.


    CM Punk, Big E, Ambrose or Reigns, I could buy as winners. Add in a a couple of surprise entries, there are no shockingly bad jobbers there... has potential, I thought.

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  26. My favorite comedy spot is Scotty 2 Hotty coming in right after Taker and Kane cleared the ring, and he has a deer in headlights look on his face.

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  27. I don't know if it's the best... but it's my favorite. I picked Kane to win the thing back in '01 and that was the last year I wasn't looking at it like a business, where the top guy should be in the main event at WM.

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  28. Kane's best match ever.

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  29. Holy shit forgot how good the undercard was too. This should have probably been in the top 15 PPV list over the 2000 Rumble.

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  30. To be fair, it was parallax1978's fault for doing Lawler's wife and splitting them up...

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  31. Disagree.

    He is clearly less over here than he was in previous years. He gets a decent pop on music hitiing after about fiftern minutes of non-action in the match but bearly gets a reaction after being beaten down by Hunter and brawling with Rikishi into the ring.

    The nature of Attitude Era booking meant people had short shelf lives at megastar level and that was becoming clear with Austin in his 2000-2001 return.

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  32. Everything on this show is solid and is pretty much floating with ***-****.

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  33. The PPV the following month, I think it was No Mercy...incredible.

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  34. Daniel Bryan HAS to be in there, doesn't he.


    And the last two have to be CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. It just HAS TO.

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  35. I'd put it on par with the star power in the 2004 Rumble, and that one turned out okay.


    Except for the winner murdering his family and erasing the match from existence part.

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  36. 2/24 is a little over a month away...

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  37. It was fantastic.


    Although one could argue that also lead to Miz main-eventing WrestleMania in the quietest WresleMania main event ever.

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  38. My idea for the Scotty II Hotty spot:

    Scotty comes in knowing he's fucked. But he brings out the glasses, one for Kane, one for Taker and one for himself. The lights go out and they start dancing, only Kane and Taker quickly stop, look at each other with a WTF look and then throw poor Scotty out.

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  39. It's not objectively the best buy it's probably the most enjoyable to me and my favorite. Everything they did on this show worked. Stacked under card and a 4 star rumble with the right guy going over.

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  40. 1998 was pretty bad. It was Stone Cold and that was pretty much it. Mick Foley wasn't quite at superstar level and Rock was still a mid-carder on the rise. Outside of that, total wasteland.

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  41. This Rumble was so fucking awesome as far as pure entertainment goes. The Honky Tonk Man segment was golden.

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  42. One of the best Rumbles but I tend to overlook it for some reason in the pantheon of Rumble matches. You knew WrestleMania was leading to Austin vs. Rock but with them both in the match, there was the question of which guy would win. Austin still had his score to settle with Triple H so I guess it made more sense for him to win. But at the time, Rock or Austin could have won.


    The HTM worked, the hardcore segment worked, and even Kane(who I've never been a huge fan of) was the star of the Rumble with his utter domination. And it made Austin's victory at the end even better because he had to overcome this damn monster who had dominated for over 40 minutes and eliminated 1/3 of the people in the match. That whole PPV is really great. Triple H and Kurt had a good title match, the Dudleyz had a good match against E&C, and of course, the ladder match.

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  43. It's amazing the escalation of those three PPVs. You've got the Royal Rumble, which consists of two ***1/2 matches, two ****1/2+ matches, and a women's title match which at least had personalities and an angle behind it. You think they can't top it.


    Then No Way Out comes and it's got a fun hardcore title match, ***+ fatal four way with 4 great workers, an honest-to-goodness *good* match between Trish and Stephanie, one of the best matches of this millennium between two of the top stars of said millennium, and a **** WWF Championship match to top it off. And you say, okay NOW they've peeked.


    Then they give you one of the greatest shows of all time the next month. Tremendous.

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  44. What is this list you speak of?

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  45. If they let Punk go coast-to-coast in this years Rumble I think it will be a good Rumble, match quality-wise. I say let him break Mysterio's record. Whoever eliminates him at the end will become the most hated man in the match.

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  46. Lets not totally sell him short. Even a few years ago he had solid matches. His match with Rey at SummerSlam is one of the best big man vs. little man matches I can remember

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  47. Aside from 1992 and 2004, this is probably my third favorite Rumble due to Kane's marathon streak and how the match is divided into nice little segments that keep the crowd interested. Just a well booked match.

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  48. Haha, the visual of Kane and the Undertaker doing the Too Cool dance is too funny. I really wish they'd booked that spot.

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  49. When you really break it down, wow. I honestly feel that Taker or Lesnar(I know he's in the pointless match with Show) should be in the match as a "surprise". Huge problem with that though is that they can't get eliminated, and if they do they either have to get screwed or the elimination leads to a particular fued.

    Which is why the Batista entry this year is interesting. He can't just take a random clothesline over the rope and that be all. His heat will be dead right?

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  50. I do laugh at how poorly the Hardy's worked against each other. Missed spot city

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  51. The Angle - Triple H match just rocked. Great undercard.

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  52. This is very much so my favorite Rumble outside of 1992. Well booked Rumble + a stacked roster, this ruled.

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  53. The Angle match from Smackdown was pretty damn good.

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  54. Kane was perfect for comedy spots like that. I still remember the Chef Boyardee commercials he was in where he's riding the scooter and singing karaoke at the club.

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  55. We all thought there's no way they could have Brock lose his first match back either - maybe they're just as pissed at Batista for up and leaving as they are/were at Lesnar. I could see them doing a spot where Batista gets distracted by whoever he's fighting at Mania (Orton or Brock?) then getting eliminated. It'd be a lame way to go out, but when has that ever stopped them before?

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  56. Drew Carey's entry might be my favorite celebrity involvement in wrestling. It's not like he tried to actually wrestle or anything.

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  57. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 2001 may be the best complete professional wrestler of all-time in my opinion.


    The way he came back from his neck injury and just dominated in every facet of the business was remarkable to me then and it still is now.

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  58. Yea I can see that happening. He is winning the thing, or getting "screwed" by his potential opponent

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  59. Are there ever really more than three guys who have a legit shot at winning?

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  60. Pretty much exactly my thoughts on it. Loved how it was booked, with the only kinda dead spot coming from #17 until the Big Show came in, and it's also in my top three, along with '92 and '04.


    I thought JR was really on his game for this one, too. I really liked Rock and Austin locking eyes, and also the way Austin gained a second wind when Rikishi started attacking him in the aisle.

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  61. I'm iffy and on the fence with this one. Quite a bit of the action was good, and the booking was alright, but the whole "four guys dominate the entire elimination process" thing ends up sticking to the event like glue, reminding us who was IN CHARGE, DAMMIT, while the rest of the guys were a faceless mass of jobbers who didn't matter.
    That kind of forced de-pushing of the lesser guys is what would hurt the WWF in the coming year, and they'd take a shit-kicking for it later. I mean, was there a REASON Kane needed to toss ELEVEN GUYS by himself, other than to break a record that will likely never be broken again? It's a nifty lesson in history, but so many guys looked like crap because of it. And another super-late number winning always feels lame- Austin was #27, and won pretty handily despite his HHH-beatdown.

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  62. Your point about Kane already being established is what makes it a smaller deal. Kane was already a huge star/Main Eventer and so it didn't matter. Diesel had done barely anything by this point and was just some big guy, so even though he was just squashing Jobbers and Tag Team guys (and didn't eliminate nearly as many people), it seemed like this awesome deal that he was just standing in the ring solo, challenging anyone else to come take him on.

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  63. Having a parade of mid-tier guys can actually be helpful at times, because you can book some interesting eliminations or get guys out of there quickly. The years that are TOO full of Main Eventers end up getting ruined because they feel the need to keep everyone in there forever, leaving the ring very clogged all the time.

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  64. I'm kind of annoyed with the attempts at Record-Breaking. I wish they'd just let one stand.

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  65. I think it was Cuuch's book review that pointed out how Lawler was bragging about all the chicks he'd scored for chapter upon chapter (I'm pretty sure actually cheating on a spouse or two), only to turn around in the end and whine about Kat cheating on him. I don't have much sympathy for either of them.

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  66. Did they ever actually explain why Kat had been released? She seemed pretty over and was often on TV, then all of a sudden she was gone. I felt like there needed to have been a bigger story there, especially given that they had to have known Lawler would be pissed at the decision.

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