10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Facts
4. The First Royal Rumble To Feature A Current NXT Champion
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.