WWE Royal Rumble 2001: Retro 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our universally celebrated loved/hated format! And we couldn't let this week go by without celebrating the 25th anniversary of one of the most acclaimed Rumble events, WWE Royal Rumble 2001.

You might remember this show primarily for the involvement of comedian and WWE Hall of Famer Drew Carey, and don't worry — we'll get to that! But it's also a show that saw the Dudley Boys take on Edge and Christian; a brutal ladder match between a pair of Canadian Chrises (yes, that one); a women's title match with a bizarre finish; a world title match that involved a lot of women. As for the Rumble match itself, this is the one where Kane set the elimination record before finally being eliminated by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, returned to the match after having been bloodied by Triple H upon his initial entry.

There's a lot going on, and we're not going to cover all of it, because (a) there's too much, and (b) not all of it stood out to us. But as we turn back the curtain 25 years, we can absolutely give you three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Royal Rumble 2001!

They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. That definitely seems to apply to WWE's love for holding wrestling shows with not as much wrestling as one would expect. Ever since WWE went under the TKO umbrella, one of the many criticisms the promotion has faced is that the wrestling has become secondary to entrances, backstage segments, and enough product placement/advertising to make a Roger Moore James Bond film blush. And yet, as I watched this Royal Rumble show which had segments on top of segments on top of segments on top of even more segments, I couldn't help but wonder how those same critics would probably say the same thing watching this show as well, because my goodness it is a lot.

Now to be fair, WWE doesn't have the advertising overload of today's show, save for the event being sponsored by 1-800-COLLECT, which was actually chuckle worthy as a child of the 90s and 2000s. But I kid you not when I say that this show features segment overload. After each match, WWE seemed to just stack them on top of each other, disrupting the flow of the show in favor of moments that I mostly can't remember. I know there was one APA thing where they did APA stuff, there was a Carey/McMahon/Stratus encounter, a Rock promo, a Jericho promo ... and save the Carey segment, none of them added anything to the show, other than to pad time. Personally, I'd have preferred that time go to the matches on the card, or even to a match that could've been added, given these segments took up at least ten minutes. Call me a grump, and I may very well be, but these never ending segments with little to no point did absolutely zilch for me.

Written by Eric Mutter

Putting the words "loved" and "Chris Benoit" in the same sentence in the big 2026 should only really be done by people who are desperate for attention on social media or people who have been living under a rock for two decades. With that said, it is hard not to watch the ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship between Benoit and one of his greatest opponents, Chris Jericho, at the 2001 Royal Rumble pay-per-view and think "I actually did love that match."

Without trying to sound like Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud, ladder matches in today's wrestling landscape are almost too different to the way they were at the turn of the millennium. Nowadays, there are at least 15 ladders scattered around ringside, all of which vary from stepladders that have no practical use in this sort of a match, to a painter's ladder so tall that you could climb up three rungs and you'd have already gone past the title belt. Each spot is carefully put together and the contraptions become so complicated and convoluted that it takes up enough time to make people go "their opponent could have climbed up and won by now."

This match on the other hand is nothing like what we see from ladder matches today. It's two men who understand that the thing they are climbing is also a weapon, and both Benoit and Jericho use it to great effect throughout. They hit each other with it, they perform submissions on it, they literally catapult it at one another. Never has the aim of trying to incapacitate your opponent been more relevant than in a match like this. Jericho uses a similar mindset in his 2008 ladder match with Shawn Michaels, who also used his WrestleMania 10 match with Razor Ramon as inspiration for that bout, but this is the gold standard.

With the benefit of hindsight, it can be uncomfortable to watch at times knowing what went down in 2007. That Suicide Dive which results in Benoit taking a chair right to the face falls into the category of "That's the one that did it" spots from Benoit's career, but you just can't look away. To call it a car crash match would be cliché, but it's genuinely a match where you find yourself wincing and squirming, yet still being glued to the screen to see what Benoit and Jericho do to each other next.

Quite simply, this is one of the greatest ladder matches in wrestling history, and while it has been rightfully buried due to the obvious circumstances, it is essential viewing for any wrestling fan.

Written by Sam Palmer

My usual gripe for women's matches on shows of this era is the fact the in-ring action is ridiculously short. While that is a factor in this "hated," as Chyna and Ivory, in her Right to Censor era, got just under three-and-a-half minutes for this match, it's much worse than just that. WWF Women's Champion Ivory and Chyna's match for the title kicked off a serious injury angle for "The Ninth Wonder of the World" in a distasteful way, even for the Attitude Era. It was disappointing, as well, because this was Chyna's first shot at the Women's Championship, something she probably should have won much earlier in her career, and looking back on it, she should have just decimated Ivory.

The injury built off a previous angle where Chyna took a piledriver from another Right to Censor member, Val Venis, weeks prior. In a backstage segment right ahead of the match, Chyna told Billy Gunn that she didn't "give a damn" what the doctors said. If that didn't foreshadow disaster enough, the video package featuring a sit-down interview with Chyna in a neck brace, as well as video of the piledriver, was played right before the women went to battle. The D-Generation X member admitted she wasn't at 100 percent.

Chyna dominated this match until the very end, and she's absolutely furious to kick things off. She whipped Ivory around the ring by her hair and stomped her down in the corner. The champion tried to escape through the crowd, but Chyna military pressed Ivory above her head and got her back in the ring. That was about all of the match there was, as Chyna then attempted the back handspring elbow, and went right down in the most unbelievable, in the worst possible way, neck injury spot. Though, to be fair, it wasn't like WWF was putting much thought into its women's stories at all at this time.

Jerry Lawler actually got up from the desk to check on Chyna, trying to make this more believable, but he was never nice to her on commentary, always calling her a man and other nasty things, so I wondered why he of all people would care. She was just staring blankly in the ring and not really reacting much, which also took me out of it. Chyna was loaded on to a stretcher and taken out, which was probably the only somewhat believable part of all of this.

Chyna would go on to beat Ivory for the title at WrestleMania, but the fact she needed a big comeback angle for the Women's Championship, when she had already held men's titles and was always over with the fans, was really lame.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Triple H and Kurt Angle's WWE Championship match at the 2001 Royal Rumble is not exactly a generational masterpiece, remembered for ages as a genre-defying classic. It is a very meat-and-potatoes WWE 2000's style main event, but meat-and-potatoes are the makings for stew, and stew is crazy good in these cold winter months.

There were plenty of shenanigans from Stephanie McMahon, Trish Stratus, Vince McMahon, and even a crowd-popping appearance from Steve Austin to cost Triple H the match. Due to the way 2001 ultimately went, I forgot how much of the year was built around Triple H and Austin not being able to get along. The seeds were being planted for whatever Two-Man Power Trip showdown they had planned. This is also a period where Triple H had every reason to prove himself, and Kurt Angle was also trying to prove that he was no slouch. All the elements were combustible enough for, if not "greatness," then something close. Close enough to make for a satisfying undercard main event before the titular Royal Rumble takes center stage.

Both men would have better matches, even with each other, but the end result is a damn fine bit of world title wrestling.

Written by Ross Berman

We were rewatching a WWE show from 2001 which naturally meant that Vince McMahon had to be present, and that presence had to be in a smutty cheating storyline with Trish Stratus. As someone who has watched some very, very lewd shows in my time and still found some form of enjoyment in one shape or another, even I struggle to find the actual reason for this story to exist other than a self-insert from the creative head to suggest he is sleeping with one of the top women on his roster. For obvious reasons, that has aged like milk.

I get it. Trish Stratus was and still is very attractive, and romance storylines can be compelling. But what purpose did Vince parading around with Trish at his arm really serve? It certainly didn't make her any better of a wrestler. It certainly did cement the idea that Vince only saw women for one thing. The show itself delivered some really fun story beats and there was a lot of good going for it, but it can be hard to sit there and enjoy it – retrospect or not – when the owner of the company is portraying himself as the Harvey Weinstein of wrestling.

And look, I was one at the time of this show so maybe, just maybe, I would have 'had to be there' to truly appreciate the nuance behind the storytelling. But, going off what I have, it is very hard to sit there watching wrestling intersected with Vince McMahon's metatextual affair storylines. Especially when commentary has Jerry Lawler, who was very clearly incapable of containing the neanderthal within him. (Again, you may enjoy that. I don't. That's it.)

Written by Max Everett

Celebrities in wrestling are a mixed bag; sometimes you get Johnny Knoxville, Shaquille O'Neal, Bad Bunny, or Paul Walter Hauser working their tails off, other times you get Bow Wow. Remember that time Bow Wow and Jade Cargill did an angle? Exactly. And if one were to guess where Drew Carey would rank in the pyramid, most would probably figure the Bow Wow section, given that Carey, a comedian best known for how unthreatening and unathletic he is. And yet, against all odds, Carey's entry into the 2001 Royal Rumble match, brought on because he had the unmitigated gall to flirt with Trish Stratus earlier in the evening, turns out to be one of the better uses of a celebrity in wrestling history.

Of course, the reason for that is because WWE played right into Carey being completely and utterly out of his element. He does no physicality, instead getting in the ring when Matt and Jeff Hardy are wrestling each other, and watches with glee as the two brothers inexplicably eliminate each other. Somehow, it only gets funnier when Kane comes down to the ring, leading to Carey trying to offer Kane money to spare him. Does it work? No. Does Carey get chokeslammed for his trouble? Also no! He's thankfully spared by Raven coming out to hit Kane with a trash can lid, allowing Carey to pull the Mil Mascaras and eliminate himself. Perfect. No notes. Absolute magic. At another time, WWE may have tried too hard to make Carey do stuff, and thus would've embarrassed him and himself. Instead, they kept it simple, Carey is quite funny by doing nothing, and his moments in the Rumble turn out to be the highlight of what I otherwise thought was kind of a drag.

Written by Eric Mutter