In 2001 the WWE was a little too obsessed with blood and plunder, but strangely this led to an extremely enjoyable Rumble. Well paced too, at no point coming across as dull, drawn out or a struggle. We even get Drew Carey at the beginning, but his involvement in the match was ended when entrant number six arrives, setting off one of the greatest Royal Rumble performances. Has there ever been a more dominant performance than Kane in 2001? Sure, his record of 11 eliminations in a single match has since been bettered (by Roman Reigns in 2014), but from the moment he entered this match until being the final man eliminated 53 minutes later, this was Kane's match. The first half of his run was characterised by the aforementioned plunder, as Kane runs through the hardcore division like a knife through butter. Steve Blackman was eliminated in iconic fashion (with a trashcan lid to the head), Kane eliminated everyone who entered from seven until 12, with the entrance of The Rock at 13 putting an end to his run of terror. That was another great thing about the Rumble in 2001; there was a great number of potential winners. Kane, Rock, Big Show, Undertaker and eventual winner Steve Austin would all have made sense as the victor, although looking back there was a sense that the W should have gone to Kane to really cement his performance. Still, it took three chair shots to get rid of him.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
