5 surprising moments from the Men's Rumble Match 2018
In what was the best WWE Royal Rumble match in a decade, we had a lot of exciting moments on Sunday in Philadelphia. It had people pushed as clear favorites like Roman Reigns and John Cena. We had crowd favorites like Finn Balor and Rusev being quite successful.
We had a couple of very unexpected surprises. And most importantly, we had the winner everyone wanted for once. AJ Styles versus Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania. I cannot believe it is happening.
But what was the most surprising parts of the unpredictable and excellent 2018 Men’s Rumble Match? Here's my list of top five most surprising moments of the 2018 Men’s Royal Rumble Match:
#5 NXT stars shine
We usually have NXT presence at the Rumble, even if it is just in a small amount. In this year’s Rumble, the two stars of NXT - “Cien” Almas and Adam Cole were made to look like credible stars in Philadelphia, and really shined.
Almas, after an amazing NXT title match on Saturday, was portrayed as a credible threat through his long stay in the Rumble. He lasted nearly 30 minutes in the Rumble match before being eliminated by Randy Orton. That is an impressive hour of in-ring time in just two days for the NXT Champion. Amazing.
Adam Cole was an even bigger surprise entry after his brutal Extreme Rules match. He only lasted about seven minutes but got to last with legends like Cena, Orton and Mysterio. I would say that is a good day's work for a wrestler who has only been in the WWE for about four months.