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What's the story?
During his interview on Facebook after NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia, WWE COO Triple-H promised that some NXT Superstars would be appearing in the Royal Rumble Matches, and boy did he live up to that promise as some of the yellow brand's top stars made their main roster debuts.
In case you didn't know...
2018's Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View made history by having not one, but two, Royal Rumble matches. There was one of the men and one of the women. Naturally with sixty spots to fill you're going to need to add some surprise names.
The heart of the matter
Whilst Dave Meltzer suggested we would see at least nine Superstars from NXT enter the women's match alone, we actually ended up seeing only two NXT women enter the Women's Royal Rumble Match and two NXT men enter their respective match. But who were they? How long did they last? And how were they eliminated?
First of all, and incredibly surprisingly given the calibre and length of the match he put on at TakeOver, we had NXT Champion Andrade "Cien" Almas entering the Men's Royal Rumble Match at number seven and was the eighteenth elimination, getting eliminated by a fresh Randy Orton who hit him with an RKO and then tossed him out.
Then at number twenty-six, Adam Cole shocked the WWE Universe by entering the match as its 23rd entrant, heavily bandaged from his Extreme Rules war with Aleister Black the night before. Cole did fairly well in the match before a returning Rey Mysterio made him the nineteenth elimination, just after Orton ditched Almas.
In the women's match, Mae Young Classic winner and NXT Superstar Kairi Sane made her television return from injury in the sixth spot, but she was bizarrely eliminated by Dana Brooke, becoming the fourth woman to be thrown out of the match.
The last NXT competitor to appear during the Women's Royal Rumble Match was current NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon, who entered with a heavily bandaged arm, which she didn't use throughout her time in the match. Moon's elimination, the twentieth of the match, came at the hands of Asuka, of course.
What's next?
These were incredibly interesting choices from Triple-H. Sure, they were unexpected with many thinking Superstars like Authors of Pain, No Way Jose and The Iconic Duo would finally move up, but I don't think anyone saw both current champions coming.
Author's take
Credit where credit is due to Ember Moon, Adam Cole and Andrade "Cien" Almas who pulled double duty in the weekend to entertain us at TakeOver and appear in the Rumble.
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