10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Facts

4. The First Royal Rumble To Feature A Current NXT Champion

WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

He may not have been the first current NXT talent to appear in a Royal Rumble match, and he may not have been the first Rumble match participant to have held the NXT Championship, but Andrade 'Cien' Almas is in the history books as being the first current NXT Champion to enter the Royal Rumble - and that happened back in 2018.

Having defeated Drew McIntyre to become the NXT Champion at the previous November's NXT TakeOver: War Games, Andrade's Royal Rumble 2018 appearance saw him one day removed from one of the absolute greatest matches in the history of the NXT brand or even in the modern-day history of WWE, period.

That match, of course, saw Almas successfully retain the NXT Championship against Johnny Gargano at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia on the Saturday night before the 2018 Royal Rumble.

So highly regarded was Almas vs. Gargano, the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer gave the match a five-star rating - making it the first match in NXT's history to receive that rating, only the sixth in WWE history to get that honour, and the first WWE match since CM Punk vs. John Cena at Money in the Bank 2011 to get that gong from Meltzer.

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.