The 2001 King of the Ring was the ninth annual King of the Ring professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation that featured the 15th King of the Ring tournament. It was the final King of the Ring PPV and tournament held under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. The event took place on June 24, 2001, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The main event was a Triple threat match, a match involving three competitors, for the WWF Championship. Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho to retain the title. The undercard featured the 2001 King of the Ring tournament, which was won by Edge.
Promotional poster
Jeff Hardy defended the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship against X-Pac at King of the Ring.
Edge won the 2001 King of the Ring tournament.
Stone Cold Steve Austin defended the WWF Championship against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho at King of the Ring.
Christopher Michael Benoit was a Canadian professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career, including most notably the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States of America, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in Japan, and Stampede Wrestling in his native Canada.
Benoit in 2006
Benoit with a fan during his time in WCW
Benoit in 1999
Benoit was disqualified from the 2000 King of the Ring for using a chair against Rikishi