7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 2001

2. The Stone Cold Comeback Story Was Complete

It was hard to book Steve Austin as a sympathetic babyface wrestler because he was booked as such a dominant wrestler for much of his run as a top guy. However, he was going into this match as a guy that was coming back from a major injury too. Austin wasn't just a marked man making his Royal Rumble return after missing the previous year, but he was battered too. When he entered the match at #27, he was immediately attacked by Triple H before he could get into the ring. Hunter attacked Austin so badly that he was busted open. A number of refs had to show up to get Hunter out of there. Austin was bleeding profusely after that. It was easy for the fans to get behind him after he had to battle all of these other things. The showdown between Austin and Rock during the final three sequence was electric. It had been about two years since they had a big match, so to see them go at it again was a special moment. Plus, this time around they were both top babyfaces, so it felt even better seeing them battle it out. They exchanged finishing moves while Kane was also in the ring during that sequence. Following Kane's elimination of The Rock for his record 11th elimination of the match, he got his hands on a steel chair to work on Austin. That didn't work because Austin was able to hit a Stunner on him. Austin followed that up with three massive chair shots on Kane and then a running clothesline sent Kane over the top to the floor. The crowd went wild as Austin found a way to win it all one more time. Austin won his record third Royal Rumble in 2001. Perhaps John Cena could beat it one day since he's a top guy that has won two, but it would be better if Austin held the record forever just because of his status as one of the biggest names in WWE history. It's one of the best Rumble matches ever and it was a night of celebration because Stone Cold Steve Austin was back on top of WWE.