10 Best WWE Matches of The Year 2001

#4 Royal Rumble Match

Surprise after surprise

When fans talk about the best Royal Rumble matches of all time, this one is usually in everyone's top three, and in many cases, a lot of fans all-time favourite Rumble match, and it is easy to see why. It was action-packed, star-studded, had several surprises and the right winner.

Jeff Hardy and Bull Buchanan were the first two entries. After being joined by Matt Hardy and Ron Simmons, we had American actor, comedian and host Drew Carey enter. he had been there to promote his own pay-per-view the following week, and quickly got a crush on Trish Stratus, and entered at number #5 to impress her.

He had a comical moment where he offered number #6 entry Kane some money not to hurt him and then eliminated himself as Kane fought Raven.

Kane gave one of the best performances in Royal Rumble history here and eliminated 11 superstars by himself, a record which stood for 13 years. Raven, Al Snow, Steve Blackman and Perry Saturn brought some Hardcore Championship like action to the match, before they, along with Grandmaster Sexay were eliminated by Kane.

Next, we had another surprise entry, the Honky Tonk Man making his first WWE appearance since the Royal Rumble 1998. He sang his theme before Kane clocked him with his own guitar, and eliminated him.

Things went serious next as The Rock entered at number #13 to a huge pop. After The Godfather and Tazz were quickly eliminated, the ring started to fill up as number #16 Bradshaw came out.

Our next surprise entry was at number #23, the Big Show. He came out to a huge pop as he hadn't been seen on WWE TV in about 5 months. He only lasted just over a minute before being eliminated by The Rock. An angry Show then put Rock through the announcers' table. The Undertaker was #25, and he and Kane quickly cleared the ring.

A nervous Scotty 2 Hotty came out next and was destroyed by the brothers. Stone Cold Steve Austin arrived next but was attacked by Triple H before he got to the ring, in retaliation to Austin costing The Game the WWE Championship earlier in the night. Our final surprise entrant was number #29, then reigning WCW Hardcore Champion Haku.

This would have been a huge Monday Night War blow to WCW, had they not already lost most of their audience by this point, but it was still embarrassing for them none the less, and the never mentioned the hardcore Championship again.

Rikishi was number #30. He eliminated The Undertaker, but was then eliminated by The Rock just after. After The Rock was eliminated by Kane, it was down to he and Austin. After a minute or so of fighting Austin, Kane went outside the ring, grabbed a steel chair and tried to use it to hit Austin.

Austin avoided the chairshot and executed a Stunner on Kane. As Kane got up, Austin hit him in the head three times with the chair and then clotheslined him over the top rope to win the Rumble for a record third time.