10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Facts

9. The Final Royal Rumble Appearance Of John Cena?

WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

As of this writing, the 2018 Royal Rumble stands as John Cena's last Royal Rumble appearance. Whether the '18 edition of WWE's annual January extravaganza will go down as Cena's final Rumble appearance, that remains to be seen.

Technically classified as a free agent at this point in time - meaning he could bounce between the Raw and SmackDown brands - Big Match John entered the men's Royal Rumble bout at #20, lasted 30 minutes, made it to the contest's final four, and eliminated the Hurricane, Elias and Finn Bálor, before himself being sent over the top rope courtesy of a Kinshasha from eventual winner Shinsuke Nakamura.

Cena has a lengthy history with the Royal Rumble PPV. Not only did the Master of Thuganomics win the 2008 and 2013 Rumble matches, he also had the following memorable bouts at the beloved January event:

- 2006: Cena defeated Edge to become WWE Heavyweight Champion

- 2007: Cena retained the WWE Heavyweight Championship against Umaga in a Last Man Standing offering

- 2009: Cena retained the World Heavyweight Championship against JBL

- 2012: Cena had a double count out against Kane (okay, not so memorable...)

- 2014: Cena fell short when challenging for Randy Orton's WWE World Heavyweight Championship

- 2015: Cena and Seth Rollins unsuccessfully challenged for Brock Lesnar's WWE World Heavyweight Championship

- 2017: Cena defeated AJ Styles to become WWE Champion

If John Cena's Royal Rumble days are over, he's certainly got an impressive Rumble résumé to look back on.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.