Jesse from the 6
Thank you to Mr. Kushner for letting the people have a say in this one and thank you to the people for choosing the 2001 Rumble. According to my records, it was the only Rumble of the four that you lads had not previously reviewed.
Benoit vs Jericho was probably my favourite match ever before I discovered New Japan in 2013. The suicide dive into the chair shot took my breath away, but now it’s hard to watch. It’s really hard not to think about what all those chair shots might have contributed to on June 24, 2007. But in 2001, I loved this match unreservedly.
Question: What was up with the title match?
I was watching at the time but I can’t recall how the hell they got to a heel-heel title match. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to just have The Rock beat Angle here as opposed to the next PPV? Were they trying to swerve people? Trying to give Angle an extra month as champ?
Or, as I suspect is the true answer, was this championship feud merely a vehicle to push the Trish-Steph storyline? It seems like a grave abuse of the title, but let’s be honest: that crowd was pretty quiet until the cat fight spot.
Tbf, I like the occasional heel-heel match, it makes it seem more legit. And as Pollock has pointed out previously, you can get away with different title matches at the Rumble.
Take Care