Grilling JR - Royal Rumble 2001 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Kurt Angle is our world champion. Stone Cold Steve Austin has just returned from surgery. The Undertaker is the American Bad Ass and WCW is just about to go out of business. Folks, welcome to 2001 and more specifically today, welcome to the 2001 Royal Rumble!

It went down on January 21, 2001 in the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the first WWE event to be held in the arena, which opened in 1999 and currently serves as home of the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA. Attendance that night was maxed out for the arena, with 17,137 reported in attendance. Meltzer said it was a legitimate sellout, although there were more than 2,500 freebies given out - a higher than usual figure for a PPV. The paid was 13,481 paying $666,700 and another $93,253 in merchandise.

These are all pretty impressive numbers, right?

The show did big numbers on pay-per-view: 625,000 buys. It’s the third-most purchased Royal Rumble PPV...number 2 was the 1999 Rumble and number 1, perhaps surprisingly, was the 2002 Rumble.

1997: 244,000
1998: 351,000
1999: 650,000
2000: 590,000
2001: 625,000
2002: 670,000

The event was the fourteenth Rumble in the event’s chronology.

In terms of backstage feel, is the Rumble second only to Wrestlemania? Or third?

Our poster for the event is a classic. It’s a 2001 rendition of the 1991/1992 drawn-style Rumble poster with modern superstars on it marching toward the camera. It’s basically become the most identifiable look of all Royal Rumble branding images.

As a reminder, we’re on the road to Wrestlemania X-Seven, which many consider to be peak Attitude Era. In terms of storyline and match quality, this is about as good as it can get. And tonight’s show can be described that way, too. As Meltzer wrote, it was “one of the best PPVs in the history of the WWF.”

News and Notes

According to an item in this week's Ross Report, it appears that Shawn Michaels will wrestle at least one more match in the WWF and return as a regular television character.

There is basically nothing new to the story than has already been reported other than Vince McMahon made the final decision to use Michaels. Michaels, whose contract expires this summer, was wanting to be used, both because he's a performer and he's been on the sidelines and physically no doubt is feeling better after being out of the ring for two years for his back and knee injuries to heal up (he did one match last year for his own TWA in San Antonio). There were the obvious issues of using him in the WWF, which were basically the reasons he had been off TV for so long. Michaels, who turns 36 this summer, is claiming to have grown up, and at that age, probably also realizes if he does have a chance for a comeback, this is it.

According to the report, Michaels will be returning as a regular television character and wrestle at least one match. No decisions about anything else will be made until they see how his back holds up after the match, and to see if his attitude is what he says it is. His doctor after surgery strongly advised him against ever wrestling again, which is different from Steve Austin's doctor, who was cautious, but throughout the ordeal was very positive about Austin returning. As it turned out, most are very impressed with how well Austin has come back. Originally the feeling was that Austin would work PPV's and only major shows when he came back, and the feeling was he'd probably only be able to work a few months, building to a big farewell at Wrestlemania was at least a strong thought at one point while he was on the sidelines. As it turned out, he is working a full-time schedule, and while saying he's better than ever wouldn't be accurate, he's had very good matches and there is no indication his career is in jeopardy any time soon.

Now we know from history that Shawn wouldn’t be back until late 2002 and would even be terminated for a period, from what you’ve told us. Do you think Shawn saw WCW folding and his free ride running out and was out of chances if he wanted to keep his lifestyle - or do you think it was really about him growing up and maturing?

In examining the ratings of main eventers for the fall season (beginning on 9/25 when Raw moved to TNN) for Nitro and Raw, here is how things stack up updated through the 1/8 TV show. I didn't include 1/15 in this comparison because once the football and I'm including the music awards and stuff are over, the competition gets easier and you are comparing people against easier standards. Later in the year we'll be a comparison but only include shows beginning on 1/15 so all comparisons are relatively fair (and they are never completely fair because there are changes every Monday as far as competition programming). For a matter of figuring, we are only including nights where both shows aired and are eliminating Christmas and New Years since there was no Nitro, and also because in the case of Christmas, the rating was going to be down because of less people watching TV.

NITRO

Biggest rating: 2.85 (Steiner vs. Rection 12/4)

Lowest rating: 1.55 (Steiner vs. Jarrett 1/8)

NITRO MAIN EVENT DRAWS (based on ratings average among those with at least two main events this TV season)

• Booker T 2.23
• Scott Steiner 2.09
• Jeff Jarrett 2.08
• Mike Awesome 1.96
• Sting 1.94
• Kevin Nash 1.86

...

RAW

Biggest rating: 6.63 (HHH vs. Rock vs. Angle 10/23)

Lowest rating: 5.05 (Rock vs. Jericho 10/30)

RAW MAIN EVENT DRAWS (based on ratings average among those with at least two main events this TV season)

• HHH 6.36
• Kurt Angle 5.74
• Rock 5.63
• Steve Austin 5.53
• Chris Benoit 5.50
• Vince McMahon 5.37

Both Vince and HHH only did two main events. Actually Vince didn't do any, but his taking everyone's finisher was really the main event on one Raw, and the next Raw was built up the entire show as him against Angle even though they never actually had a match. In the case of Vince with the numbers not doing well, it's probably an indication that people are interested in the character Vince McMahon, since he spikes ratings for his appearances, but not as a TV main eventer. For HHH, since both his main events happened to be the two highest rated main events of the season, there has to be something there. But this season was largely carried by three men, Rock (seven main events out of the 13 shows studied), Angle (eight main events) and Austin (five). Rock and Angle's numbers, if anything, should be lower if only because it's hard to be something unique on top when you're the steady thing on top. My feeling is if HHH had eight main events, his numbers would be in the same range as Rock and Angle, but maybe they wouldn't.

Are these types of numbers influencing any decisions or creative backstage? What’s it say to you to hear those figures?

The Event Itself

Observer Poll

WWF ROYAL RUMBLE:

Thumbs up 378 (97.2%),

Thumbs down 8 (2.1%),

In the middle 3 (0.8%).

BEST MATCH POLL:

Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho 348,

Kurt Angle vs. HHH 29,

Royal Rumble 13.

WORST MATCH POLL:

Ivory vs. Chyna 312,

Royal Rumble 14

A. In a live match on Sunday Night Heat, Lo Down (Accie Connor & Charles Warrington) defeated Kaientai (Shoichi Funaki & Takao Yoshida) in 1:57 with a double-team power bomb and Chaz pinning Funaki. It was announced that one member of the winning team would then get to enter the Rumble, but later in the show, after McMahon gave the slot to Drew Carrey, he showed the beleaguered trio "no respect" by double-crossing them on the stipulation.

1. Dudleys (Mark Lamonica & Devon Hughes) won the WWF tag titles from Edge (Adam Copeland) & Christian (Jay Reso) in 9:59. They have now changed the name of Christian's winning move, the former Tomokaze, which they had called the impaler, to the unprettier after the TLC song. E&C got heat on D-Von for several minutes, but after a missed stereo chair shot (concerto), he made the hot tag to Buh-Buh. They did the wazzup spot on Edge and told D-Von to get the table. After a series of near falls, including a 3-D set-up on Christian where Edge ended spearing Buh Buh to break up the move and the dreadedly named unprettier on D-Von, E&C went for the same noted wazzup spot, but Buh Buh reversed the move cradling Christian for a near fall. Finally the two did the 3-D and Buh Buh pinned Edge to take the title. **¾

Can a wrestler rename a move basically at will and are they required to give an explanation as to what the name means?

The first segment with Drew Carrey, where the storyline was that since Carrey was doing a PPV, he wanted to meet Vince for tips on how to do a PPV, and ended up in Trish's dressing room where Vince talked him into entering the Rumble. At first they tried to push that Carrey was a big wrestling fan, but they had to change that idea since he was naive to what the Rumble was and thought wrestling was all in fun and nobody got hurt.

What are your memories of Drew Carrey’s involvement with the company?

Our next match was the match of the night and funny enough, it’s two WCW stars. Their feud started at WrestleMania 2000 when Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho challenged Kurt Angle with both his Intercontinental title and WWF European Championship on the line 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 two out of three falls match. On the January 4 episode of SmackDown!, Benoit defended his title against Jericho in a standard match. During the match, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko, Benoit's partners in the group 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 Is War, Jericho teamed with The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy 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. Benoit offered to give Jericho any type of match he wanted and Jericho chose a ladder match.

2. Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) won the IC title from Chris Benoit in a ladder match in 18:44. Started with a lot of good mat wrestling before any ladder involvement. Benoit at one point whipped Jericho into the ladder. In a spot that couldn't have been better executed, Jericho nailed Benoit with a hard chair shot to the head as he was coming through the ropes with a tope. Benoit came back with a hard chair shot. Both guys took a backwards bump off the ladder in the corner almost like a back superplex. Benoit dropkicked the ladder in Jericho's face. Benoit took a visually amazing whip head first into the ladder which was set up in the corner followed by Jericho doing a perfectly executed teeter totter ladder spot. Jericho did a missile dropkick into the ladder into Benoit's face. Jericho started climbing, but Benoit got him from behind in back suplex position, carried him to the ropes and dropped him over the ropes. Jericho nearly landed head first. That bump done wrong would have ended a career because he was falling backwards, almost straight down to the floor on his head. Benoit climbed but Jericho climbed up after and tied him up with a tarantula like move on the top of the ladder. That, my friends, really is just incredible. Jericho climbed but Benoit shoved the ladder over and Jericho caught his throat on the top rope. Benoit later put the crossface on Jericho, who tapped like crazy, which basically guaranteed he was going over at the end. Benoit missed a diving head-butt off the top of the ladder. Jericho was climbing. Benoit was lying nearly underneath the ladder, and from the ground, tipped it over and sent Jericho flying all the way over the top rope. Benoit was climbing and this time Jericho shoved the ladder and Benoit went over the top, and this time it gave Jericho the chance to climb the ladder and get the title belt. ****¾

How much did you enjoy this match?

3. Ivory (Lisa Moretti) pinned Chyna (Joanie Lauer) in 3:32 to retain the womens title. They did a vignette where Billy Gunn told Chyna not to do the match because she wasn't 100% to set up the angle. Chyna basically mopped the floor with Ivory and Steven Richards and set up the handspring elbow spot, which she mistimed. She then collapsed, and they sold it as if it was a paralysis angle, noting that her arm never moved, and Ivory quickly pinned her. It got really tasteless from here, because in order to sell it as legit, Jim Ross went into the same tone of voice and Jerry Lawler hit the ring to check on her, identical to the Owen Hart death. It was far too similar for that not to be the marching orders to use what everyone knew was legit to get over this angle because people don't believe these angles anymore. They never mentioned the famous injuries like to Darren Drozdov and Austin that this was something of a take-off of, but WCW also never mentioned Owen Hart when they had the EMT's feverishly working on Kanyon after taking the bump off the cage in Kemper Arena. Chyna ended up being put in a cervical collar and stretchered out. The work itself during the match was a lot better than most WWF womens fare. 1/2*

We just did a full episode on Chyna and talked about a lot of this but...talk about Chyna’s feelings here on this and on working with Ivory. How was her attitude?

Time for our world title match, featuring defending champion Kurt Angle and challenger Triple H. The build-up to the match began on the January 8 episode of Raw Is War, when Angle defended the championship against Stone Cold 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 scheduled Angle to defend his title at the Royal Rumble 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.

4. Kurt Angle pinned HHH to retain the WWF title in 24:15. Although HHH had more cheers than Angle, fans overall didn't seem to know how to react, as it was quiet. Because they were going so long, they did long building spots, mainly based around HHH working Angle's left leg. He did a great job in that aspect. Ross and Lawler talked about Carrey in the Rumble and Lawler noted he got national publicity nearly 20 years earlier in the Andy Kaufman angle (not to mention almost as much national pub a few years back reprising it with Jim Carrey as Kaufman) and Ross, who had a small part in "Man on the Moon" which Lawler had a large part in, joked about how "they made a movie about it that only eight people saw." HHH took the Harley Race bump over the top. HHH wrapped Angle's knee around the post, used a chair to the knee and even did the old Indian deathlock, which Ross tried to call a Native American deathlock to be p.c. HHH went for the figure four, including doing the Ric Flair trick of grabbing the ropes. This set up Stratus jumping in to try and alert the ref and Stephanie attacking Stratus. They brawled, rolling over the Spanish announcers table. Vince came out to separate them, but he couldn't break them up. At one point Vince put Trish on his shoulders and was carrying her away, but Stephanie attacked Trish and Vince took a bump underneath. Actually all three did a really good job even with this segment taking several minutes. In a sense it broke the momentum of a good match, but the people were given the payoff of the angle teased between the women, and it also got them out of the way of being a focal part of the finish, which was necessary since Austin had to be. Angle did a german suplex and Russian leg sweep for near falls once the match re-started. HHH did a low blow and a die hard (Splash mountain off the ropes popularized by Dynamite Kansai in Japan). He set up the pedigree, but this one was blocked. Angle did an inadvertent low blow and did a high-arching moonsault for a near fall. Give HHH credit for that one since Angle always misses his moonsault, and the one time he did hit it, it broke the forearm of Bob Holly. Ref Earl Hebner took a bump. Angle did a Kyoko Inoue armdrag superplex but no ref to count. HHH smashed Angle's head into the steps and Hebner got caught in there and took a second bump. HHH grabbed the belt from Mark Eaton but before he could use it, Angle gave him a belly to belly. HHH came back with a pedigree after blocking Angle's belt shot but again no ref. Austin came out and attacked HHH, nailing him with a belt shot, and he bladed. Angle was still selling the pedigree stronger than the belt shot, so Austin hit HHH with the stunner and left, and Angle got the arm over him for the pin. ***¾

What did you think about the match and about the story during the match? Was there too much focus on the pretty ladies fighting?

Meltzer said this:

The WWF title match, where Kurt Angle retained the title over HHH due to interference from Austin, lacked a little in crowd reaction because both were heels. Even though the TV storyline seemed to push the idea of Angle as the face, the crowd seemed more toward cheering HHH. Even though HHH has had better matches on PPV, he put forth one of his most impressive performances because with the Rumble going on last and most of the brawling and breaking tables that are usually in the HHH match being saved for that one, the match concentrated on wrestling in the ring with the exception of the two minute catfight. HHH, no doubt studying old tapes, pulled out numerous methods of working the leg and old Ric Flair spots and the two worked a very different style match for both of them, but pulled it off tremendously.

5. Austin won the Royal Rumble in 61:55. Match was better than most Rumbles, but nowhere close to being the best. It had a lot of slow moments early but had a very good finish. The entrances were supposed to be 2:00 apart, but there was really no set time. The first six were about 1:45, then they were two minutes for some, and 1:45 for others, and most somewhere in the middle. It opened with Jeff Hardy vs. Bull Buchanan (Barry Buchanan). Matt Hardy came in third and they did double-team spots, clotheslining Buchanan out in 2:08. Matt went at it with Jeff to a surprising lack of heat. Faarooq (Ron Simmons) was in next, but they dumped him quickly at 4:34. The Hardys again fought each other to no heat. Jeff in particular missed some spots early. Drew Carrey was next in. He took his time entering while the Hardys fought each other. He got in the ring, but never touched anyone, when they set up a superplex outside the ring spot and both went over at 6:21. Carrey had the ring to himself to 40 seconds until Kane (Glen Jacobs) arrived. Kane tried to set an all-time Rumble record for slowest walk to the ring. It took him more than a minute to get there and nearly another minute of a tease in the ring to actually touch Carrey. By this point, it was Raven's (Scott Levy) turn to arrive. Kane grabbed Carrey for a choke slam but Raven hit him with a kendo stick. Carrey simply climbed over the top and left at 9:07. This was pretty lame because there was no payoff. Granted, it was better than WCW's usage of David Arquette and Jay Leno going over stars, but at least Pete Rose took his annual one bump.

Kane did a messed up side slam and Raven came back spraying him with the fire extinguisher. This gave Al Snow (Allan Sarven) a chance to come out early and attack Raven. They brawled with garbage can lid spots and Snow rolling a bowling ball to Raven's crotch. Perry Saturn (Perry Satullo) was next in. All three mainly worked on Kane. Steve Blackman was in next doing the stuff with his sticks. Grandmaster Sexay (Brian Lawler) came in and listed all of 1:13 before Kane hit him with a garbage can and he was out at 17:16. Kane dumped Blackman after hitting him with a can lid at 17:34. Kane followed by dumping Snow at 17:43 and Raven at 17:46, leaving the ring empty for Honky Tonk Man (Roy Wayne Ferris), 47, to arrive as a surprise. Some of the fans in the first few rows popped for his greatest IC champ of all-time routine, but the reality is his heyday was 1987-88 and the long shot showed mostly very confused fans as to who this old guy dressed like Elvis with a guitar was. Anyway, it was entertaining for those who knew. Kane clocked him with the guitar and threw him out at 19:53, so he still lasted longer than several of the contracted guys. Rock (Dwayne Johnson) was in with Kane and they brawled until Goodfather (Charles Wright) joined in. He lasted all of 26 seconds, most of which consisted of him getting to the ring, before Rock dumped him at 22:24. Tazz came in and he technically lasted 20 seconds, again, most of it being his ring entrance, out of there at 24:01. That had to be a rib.

Then they let the ring fill up with Bradshaw (John Layfield--who got to look good in a spot by doing his clothesline on Rock), Albert (Matt Bloom), Hardcore Holly (Robert Howard), K-Kwik (Ron Killings), Val Venis (Sean Morley), William Regal (Darren Mathews) and Test (Andrew Martin). To continue their program, Test threw out Regal at 37:15, since Regal is probably far from 100% Big Show (Paul Wight) came in as a surprise. He jumped Test at 39:14 and press-slammed Kwik out at 39:20 and even laid out Kane with a choke slam. Show looked almost as heavy as in his WCW days, so WWF really has a problem right now. They made it so public they weren't going to use him until he got to 400 and kept getting word the weight was coming off. Don't know what happened, but he showed up as big as when he left and either they are going to look bad taking him back after he didn't get the weight off, making them look like WCW management, or he made some very bad decisions that are going to negatively affect a once promising career. Rock clotheslined Show out in 40:27, so he only lasted a hot 90 seconds. But he did choke slam Rock through an announcers table before leaving, allowing Rock to sell for several minutes. Crash Holly (Michael Lockwood) was in next, followed by Undertaker (Mark Calaway). As teased, Undertaker and Kane are back together and between 43:29 and 43:43 they cleaned the ring of Bradshaw, Crash Holly, Bob Holly, Albert and Venis, leaving them as the only two left. Not sure if them being together is good or bad. It's good because they don't have to wrestle each other. It's bad because they have to wrestle other people making for two bad potentially average to bad matches on PPVs unless they make them into a tag team. For a storyline and logic perspective, the Undertaker/Kane saga since 1997 has had more booking holes than the three worst WCW angles combined. Scotty 2 Hotty (Scott Garland) was next in, but he lasted a little more than a minute, being dumped at 45:46. Austin (Steve Williams) was supposed to be in next but HHH attacked him before he got to the ring and Austin juiced big-time as they brawled in the entrance area. Billy Gunn (Monty Sopp) followed, followed by the surprise of Haku (Uliuli Fifita). Rikishi (Solofa Fatu) came out at No. 30, but before he got in the ring, Austin made the big recovery and started brawling with him. Austin put on a hell of a performance down the stretch. Austin threw out Haku in 52:45. Rikishi dumped Undertaker in 53:53. Rock then made his comeback and eliminated Rikishi in 54:15. Austin took a famouser from Gunn, but Austin came back and dumped Gunn at 55:22. Then came the big Rock vs. Austin spot with Kane outside the ring. They traded punches, with Rock coming out the better. Fans didn't boo either man, and popped huge for Austin's stunner on rock. Rock came back and did the rock bottom on a bloody Austin. They threw Kane out through the middle rope and Rock and Austin continued brawling toward the corner. Kane came in for the signature Battle Royal finish where he dumps both guys, but Rock went over in 59:09 and Austin rolled back in the ring. This left Austin vs. Kane. Kane, who lasted 54:55 in total, hit a choke slam and Austin hit yet another stunner. Austin then nailed Kane with three hard chair shots and clotheslined him over to win. ***¼

How did you like the match? Where would you rank this one in the hierarchy of Rumbles? Top 5?

Kane had 11 eliminations in this match, which was a record at the time. (Roman Reigns broke it with 12 and Braun broke that with 13). Kane was the final man in the match who was eliminated. Were there some kind of plans here for him to get a main event push that maybe didn’t pan out because of creative changes later in the year?

Talk for a second about Tazz’s year, which began the year before at the Rumble and has now advanced to this year, with a ten second run in the Rumble that rivaled Bushwhacker Luke’s performances. What’s the story here with Taz’s elimination? Was he hurt?

Stan’s Note: It’s important to note here that by winning this Rumble, Steve Austin has now set a record that stands to this day: most Rumble’s won by a single competitor. Three. And when you consider that the 1999 Rumble was completely about Austin - and McMahon won it just to lose it to Austin at the next PPV  - it makes the feat even more impressive. No one else has won it more than twice, from Hulk Hogan to John Cena.

Meltzer said this about the match

The Rumble itself featured four surprise entrants. Even though Jim Ross wrote a few days earlier that there would be surprises, but not to buy the show based on surprises, basically saying you'd be disappointed, it didn't stop the rumor mill from working overtime, even to the extent the name Bret Hart came up, particularly when word got out that Shawn Michaels would be returning to WWF TV and doing at least one more match. As it turned out, the four surprises were a cameo in the Rumble, taking no bumps and doing virtually nothing physical by comedian Drew Carrey, who is doing a PPV this coming week that McMahon must have some financial involvement in because it was plugged so hard and so often it became totally annoying, Honky Tonk Man in a quick but entertaining segment, Big Show, whose appearance made one question the manufacturer of scales in the greater Louisville area as he looked far too large, and Haku, the former Meng, a totally questionable hiring seemed to serve no purpose than to be a slap in the face of WCW and Eric Bischoff for putting a title, however meaningless the hardcore belt is, on a guy that wasn't under contract and losing him without dropping it. This also may have been a favor to Rock, as they consider him family (isn't everyone?) and there was family pressure when he lost his WCW job to get him in here.

As far as the show itself, Meltzer said this

In what was one of the best PPVs in the history of the WWF, the company gave a big tease for the eventual Rock vs. Steve Austin match which at this point still looks to be the headliner at Wrestlemania, putting Austin over in the Rumble.

The show, featuring some strong highs and only a few lows, featured an early match of the year candidate in the Chris Jericho IC title win over Chris Benoit in a ladder match. The match was different than most ladder matches, and a change of pace from original thoughts. The original idea was to use multiple ladders, break ladders and revolve the match around ladder spots. Instead they went with an approach that would see them not have to top previous ladder matches for the multitude of crazy ladder spots by revolving much of the match around doing a wrestling match, but throwing in enough ladder spots that nobody felt they weren't getting the gimmick. The five-match PPV aspect of the show also featured a second match along the same lines, with the Dudleys winning the tag titles over Edge & Christian in a match devoid of crazy spots, and while the table was teased, it was never actually used, but the teams still put on a solid opener.

What did you think of the 2001 Royal Rumble?

Questions

Fernando asks...Was it ever considered to push the angle between Kurt & Triple HHH all the way till wrestlemania seeing the amount of fire this storyline had?

Fernando asks..If Austin & JR ever celebrated what a great show or performance Austin had, what choice of beverage would they toast to first? 

James asks...Why was there never anything made of Haku's legit toughness and some of his wild stories?

also...Why was Kane pushed so hard in this Rumble (arguably ahead of anyone else) yet not pushed massively in the near future after this?

RockyBear52 asks...Several people argue that 92 Royal Rumble is the greatest of all time but I argue that 2001 is with huge moments from Kane's huge night, Rock and Austin facing off and Austin winning it all after coming back from injuries. In your opinion, where does this rank?

ConnieMyBoy asks... What sort of pay day did Drew Carey get? And did he receive more than Austin and Kane?

likeMIKE asks...with Stone Cold winning the RR but Kane having a strong showing before getting eliminated last. why wasn’t there a continued storyline w/ Kane & Austin at Backlash 01 Instead of the Austin/HHH v Bros of Destruction match we got..which to me was a bit too much to follow

likeMIKE asks...Haku made an appearance as a surprise entrant in the RR & ultimately ended up teaming w/ Rikishi to fued with the Bros of Destruction. Why do you think they were never given a ppv match together. & would you say Haku’s 2001 run was underwhelming or did he serve his purpse?

Bill asks...Who’s decision was it to have Austin bleed, and was his delayed entry due to him maybe not being 100%?

Ska Dude Yams asks...Ever any thought to getting Stone Cold to the ME of Wrestlemanja other than him winning the Rumble? I believe this was his third time so I was wondering if there was an alternative storylines other than the classic “win rumble, main event WM”?

AJ asks...Even though it didn't quite happen with Drew Carey, which celebrity in 2020 would JR most like to see potentially get choke slammed by Kane?

Rajiv asks...Why is this Jericho and Benoit ladder match not mentioned in the same breath as the other great ones? Is it solely because of how Benoit’s life ended?

JTwoH asks...Thought process on Kane breaking (setting) the single elimination in a Royal Rumble Match record?

Zachary asks...what are some of the biggest struggles you have calling commentary during the rumble match?

Kevin asks...Because of Kane’s incredible record setting night, given the world title plans were tied up for WM, was this perhaps a reward for Kane given how valuable a team player he’d been up to this point and would continue to be in the years to come?

Henry asks..the moment the rock and Austin locked eyes in the royal rumble match. Is that your personal favorite rock Austin moment? They had great matches but many interesting/great moments

Stewart asks...Was Stone Cold planned to win this, or was there an original plan beforehand on a different winner and buildup to WMX7?