This tops the list as my greatest Rumble ever because it was a match that really had it all.
Prior to the Rumble itself, the WWE had made it very apparent that there were only five Superstars in contention to realistically win the match: Rikishi, The Rock, Stone Cold, The Undertaker and Kane.
That probably doesn't sound great, but in reality, when was the last time you looked at a modern Rumble and really believed that more than two or three guys had a shot at winning it?
While this narrowing of potential winners from 30 to 5 seemed on paper like a restrictive move, in reality it made choosing the winner of the 2001 edition one of the most intriguing in history.
After a slow paced start that saw a lot of lower and mid-tier carders enter the ring, we were suddenly blown away by the No. 6 entrant, Kane.
The Big Red Machine would famously go on to eliminate a mind boggling 11 opponents, before eventually falling just short at the hands of Stone Cold.
The win for Austin also meant that he became the first, and currently only, Superstar to have won three separate Rumbles.
All this was following a brutal attack at the hands of the Game before Stone Cold could even make it to the ring. By the time he did so, he was battered, bruised and bleeding like crazy.
Somehow the Texas Rattlesnake managed to battle through the pain and pick up his his No. 1 contender spot at Wrestlemania.
A shock return from the Big Show, as well as cameos from The Honky Tonk man, Haku and, weirdly enough, talk show host Drew Carey all added to the occasion.
Another theme the WWE had been running with prior to the event was whether or not Kane and the Undertaker would be on the same page. To the horror of the 28 other men in the ring, the brothers of destruction did, in fact, team up and managed to eliminate about nine guys between the two of them in less than a minute.
This Rumble epitomized the golden Attitude era of the WWE; with fantastic storylines, incredibly violent scenes and amazing pops from the crowd.
It will be a long time before anything lives up to the 2001 edition of the Royal Rumble. At least, in my opinion anyway.
