WWE Royal Rumble 2019: 8 Things WWE Got Right

3. The NXT Flavouring

There were exactly nine current NXT stars spread out across both Rumbles (11 if you count NXT alumni such as Lacey Evans and Nikki Cross). Playing percentages, around 18% of the 60-strong line up represented the third brand, and that's before digging up ex-NXT names like Andrade, Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Elias and so on to make it even more impressive.

It's sweet to see NXT get this kind of nod on such a major show.

Watching Aleister Black take Jeff Hardy's leg drop move, Lacey kick off the second female Rumble with panache and marvelling at Johnny Gargano's 14-minute performance felt good. Best of all, nobody from NXT was treated like they were out of their depth, which is promising news for folks like Black, Gargano and Kairi Sane who are a stone's throw away from being called up.

Even if more casual fans watching don't tune into NXT weekly, they would've come away from the Rumble knowing that its roster has credibility. The importance of that should never be overlooked.