Royal Rumble 2001 Royal Rumble 2001 was the fourteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay - per - view ( PPV ) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) . It took place on January 21 , 2001 at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans , Louisiana . The main event was the Royal Rumble match , which Steve Austin won by last eliminating Kane to win the match , making it his third Royal Rumble win , the first person to ever do so in WWF history . Kane also set a record for the most eliminations . The match also saw Drew Carey enter the Royal Rumble . Featured matches on the undercard included a ladder match between Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and a singles match between Kurt Angle and Triple H for the WWF Championship . Background . The main event at the Royal Rumble was the Royal Rumble match , a battle royal in which wrestlers entered the ring at regular timed intervals of approximately 120 seconds , attempting to eliminate each other by throwing opponents over the top rope and both of their feet touching the ground . The winner of the match received a match for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania X - Seven . The match is scheduled annually and the scripted build up occasionally features qualifying matches . The Rock began discussing the Royal Rumble on the January 4 episode of " SmackDown ! " , when he promised to win the Royal Rumble match for the second year in a row to earn the title match at WrestleMania with the first being the previous year ' s Royal Rumble event . On the following week ' s episode of " SmackDown ! " , Vince McMahon , the WWF Chairman , added Stone Cold Steve Austin to the match . The same episode also featured a standard match involving four wrestlers contested between The Rock , Kane , Rikishi and The Undertaker , with the winner earning the right to enter at number 30 in the Royal Rumble match . The match was won by Rikishi . A featured preliminary match at the Royal Rumble was WWF Champion Kurt Angle defending against Triple H in a standard match . The buildup to the match began on the January 8 episode of " Raw " , when Angle defended the WWF Championship against Steve Austin , which ended in a No Contest when Triple H interfered and ambushed Austin with a steel pipe . On the January 11 episode of " SmackDown ! " , Vince McMahon announced that Angle would defend his title at the Royal Rumble event against Triple H . Leading up to the event , both men spoke about the match , with Triple H claiming that Angle only held the championship because he allowed him to , and Angle denying this . Another featured preliminary contest at the Royal Rumble was a ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship , in which the champion , Chris Benoit , defended his title against Chris Jericho . In the match , the title belt was suspended above the ring from the ceiling , and the only method to win the competitors had to climb a ladder to retrieve the belt . Their feud started at WrestleMania 2000 , when Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho challenged Kurt Angle both the Intercontinental title and the WWF European Championship in a Two - fall Triple Threat match . During that match , both men pinned each other in one fall each to win the respective championship from Angle . Since that event , Benoit would hold three pay per view victories over Jericho esp . at SummerSlam in the best 2 out of 3 falls match . On the January 4 episode of " SmackDown ! " , Benoit defended his title against Jericho in a standard match . During the match , Perry Saturn ( Perry Satullo ) and Dean Malenko , Benoit ' s partners in the group of The Radicalz , interfered by attacking Jericho , causing him to win the match by disqualification but not the championship . On the January 8 episode of " Raw " , Jericho teamed with The Hardy Boyz ( Matt and Jeff Hardy ) against The Radicalz ( Saturn , Malenko , and Benoit ) in a six man tag team match , which Jericho won by pinning Benoit . On the January 11 episode of " SmackDown ! " , Jericho demanded a title match at the Royal Rumble , and Benoit offered to give Jericho any type of match he wanted . Jericho then announced that their match would be a ladder match . Event . Before the event began and aired live on pay - per - view , an episode of " Sunday Night Heat " , one of the secondary television programs for WWF , was taped live . The show featured a tag team match between Lo Down ( D ' Lo Brown and Chaz ) and Kaientai ( Taka Michinoku and Shoichi Funaki ) . The match ended after Chaz pinned Funaki . Originally , the winning team was to send one of their members into the Royal Rumble match , but Drew Carey wound up being entered instead . Preliminary matches . After " Sunday Night Heat " , the pay - per - view event began with a tag team match for the WWF World Tag Team Championship , where the champions , Edge and Christian , defended their titles against The Dudley Boyz ( Bubba Ray and D - Von ) . Throughout the match , both teams performed many offensive maneuvers , though The Dudley Boyz were able to gain the upper hand when they executed a 3D on Edge . This was followed by D - Von covering Edge for a successful pinfall , resulting in The Dudley Boyz winning the WWF World Tag Team Championship . The following bout was WWF Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit defending his title against Chris Jericho in a ladder match , which was to serve as the " blowoff " to their longstanding on and off rivalry . The match featured both men performing a number of attacks and maneuvers on one another in an attempt to disable their opponent long enough to climb the ladder and retrieve the title belt suspended above the ring . At one point in the match , Benoit dove through the ropes headfirst at Jericho , but Jericho struck him in the face with a steel chair . Jericho also applied the Walls of Jericho at the top of the ladder onto Benoit . The end of the match came when Jericho pushed over the ladder while Benoit was ascending it , causing Benoit to fall out to the outside of the ring . Jericho then climbed the ladder and retrieved the Intercontinental Championship belt , winning the championship by doing so . The third contest had WWF Women ' s Champion Ivory against Chyna in a standard match for the championship . Both women attempted to gain an advantage over the other , with Chyna controlling much of the match . The end of the match came when Chyna attempted a handspring back elbow on Ivory , who was in the corner of the ring . Chyna , however , fell to the canvas and ( in storyline ) injured her neck . Ivory then covered her for a successful pinfall , retaining her championship . Following this , commentator Jerry Lawler went into the ring to check on Chyna , and she was removed from the ringside area on a stretcher . Main event matches . The penultimate match was the WWF Championship match between reigning champion Kurt Angle and the number one contender Triple H . Triple H had been named the number contender by his ( then storyline ) father - in - law Vince McMahon to set the match up . The match began as a mat based , hold for hold contest , but Trish Stratus then tried to interfere on Angle ' s behalf , only to then get into a catfight with Stephanie McMahon , who was in Triple H ' s corner . Stratus ( Vince McMahon ' s storyline mistress ) and Stephanie ( McMahon ' s daughter and then storyline wife of Triple H ) had been involved in their own feud due to vying for power as the WWF ' s " dominant female " . After the fracas involving the two ladies on the outside ( which had to be broken up by Vince himself ) , both Triple H and Angle accidentally hit the referee Earl Hebner , causing him to roll out of the ring . Triple H grabbed the title belt and tried to hit Angle with it , only to receive a belly - to - belly suplex . Angle then tried to hit Triple H with the belt , but Triple H ducked and gave him a Pedigree . As Triple H went outside to revive the referee , Stone Cold Steve Austin rushed into the arena , beating Triple H and giving him the Stone Cold Stunner as retaliation for Triple H costing Austin the title several weeks earlier on " Raw " . As Austin left the arena , Angle crawled over on top of Triple H to cover him for the pin , while Hebner recovered and made the count . Angle won the match and retained the WWF Title , with a very angry Triple H vowing to get even with Austin for costing him the match . Closing the show was the traditional 30 - man Royal Rumble match , where the winner would receive a WWF Championship match at WrestleMania X - Seven . The first two entrants were Jeff Hardy and Bull Buchanan ( a member of Right To Censor at the time ) . They were joined by Matt Hardy who entered at No . 3 , both Hardys worked together in eliminating Buchanan as well as Faarooq who entered at No . 4 . Jeff and Matt then battled each other , and it was during this time that Drew Carey arrived at No . 5 , being the first celebrity entrant in Rumble history . Earlier in the night , Carey was backstage looking to speak with Vince McMahon about how to put together a successful pay per view . After thinking Carey was trying to hit on his ( storyline ) mistress Trish Stratus , McMahon offered Carey a spot in the Rumble ( in hopes of Carey getting pummeled ) as a way to promote his upcoming Improv All - Stars pay per view . Once Carey entered the ring , he stood aside , and watched as the Hardys eliminated each other . Kane then entered at No . 6 . Carey tried to shake his hand as well as bribe him with cash , but Kane grabbed Carey by the throat and was about to chokeslam him when Hardcore Champion Raven entered the ring as entry No . 7 , and attacked Kane with a Singapore cane . This gave Carey the opportunity to eliminate himself safely by climbing over the top rope . Kane would then dominate the match , eliminating all of the wrestlers who came between No . 7 to 11 . The Honky Tonk Man ( who had not appeared in the WWF since the 1998 Royal Rumble ) came in at No . 12 and started singing his entrance theme " Cool , Cocky , Bad " , only to be greeted by a guitar shot in the head by Kane and eliminated immediately after . The Rock entered at No 13 and started brawling with Kane . The ring began to fill up in the next few minutes , and the tide turned when The Big Show made his return from months of inactivity , entering at No . 23 . He eliminated Test and K - Kwik , then proceeded to chokeslam everyone else . When he got to The Rock , the Show received a low blow and was clotheslined over the top rope by The Rock . As Crash Holly made his way to the ring at No . 24 , an irate Big Show dragged Rock from the bottom rope and chokeslammed him through the announcers ' table . Just when the other wrestlers worked together in trying to eliminate Kane , The Undertaker made his arrival at No . 25 and saved Kane , and both of them eliminated everyone in the ring except The Rock ( who was still unconscious due to Big Show ' s assault on him ) . Scotty 2 Hotty entered the ring at No . 26 and was quickly beaten up and eliminated by both Kane and Undertaker . Steve Austin entered at No . 27 , but before he could enter the ring , he was assaulted and bloodied by Triple H who retaliated at Austin for interfering in his match against Kurt Angle earlier . The Rock rolled back into the ring and battled with both The Undertaker and Kane . Billy Gunn , Haku and Rikishi made up the last 3 entrants . Austin ( entry No . 27 ) would actually be the last wrestler to enter the ring as he had just recovered from the beating and was coming to the ring at the same time as Rikishi , the 30th entrant . Once everybody had entered the ring , Austin eliminated Haku , and Rikishi superkicked the Undertaker , eliminating him . Rikishi then attempted to do a top - rope Banzai Drop on The Rock , but The Rock recovered quickly , giving Rikishi a low blow and causing him to fall over the top rope . The final four consisted of Kane , The Rock , Austin and Gunn . Gunn hit the Fame Asser onto Austin , but Austin recovered quickly and eliminated Gunn . The Rock and Austin then battled each other after tossing Kane through ( but not over ) the ropes . Kane came back in moments later tried to eliminate both Rock " and " Austin , who were fighting near the ropes . The Rock was eliminated , while Austin held on to the ropes . 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 hit Kane with a Stunner . 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 . In spite of his runner - up performance , Kane ' s 11 eliminations became the most by a single Rumble participant , beating the previous record of ten , held by Hulk Hogan at the 1989 Royal Rumble and Steve Austin at the 1997 Royal Rumble event . Aftermath . Kurt Angle entered a feud with The Rock again and would go to fight him at No Way Out for the WWF Championship in a Singles Match . Kurt Angle would lose the match after being pinned by The Rock losing the championship to him . Triple H would continue his feud with Steve Austin at No Way Out in a Three Stages of Hell Match . Triple H defeated Steve Austin by winning two matches with Steve Austin only one . This match finally ended the Triple H / Austin feud that lasted since SummerSlam . Steve Austin and The Rock would fight once again at WrestleMania for the WWF Championship in a No Disqualification Match . Steve Austin would win the title thanks to an intereference from Mr . McMahon . The two would have another match the next night on " Raw " for the title this time inside a Steel Cage . The match went to a no contest due to another intereference by Vince ' s son - in - law Triple H . Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations . A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes .