Well, the Royal Rumble has come and gone, and while I will go into more detail about the event in my post this Wednesday, I want to kind of toot my own horn here by talking about some of the surprise entrants that I predicted would be in both the Men’s and Women’s Royal Rumble. As a long-time WWE fan, I like to believe that I can kind of predict some of what the WWE is going to do and how their booking works, but I still love being surprised by the company from time to time, especially when it comes to the Royal Rumble event. Now, while none of my predicted former male and female superstars made a surprise appearance at the Royal Rumble, a number of my male and female NXT and NXT UK superstars made surprise appearances at the event, and I was still surprised and shocked at seeing them there. I truly believe that these NXT and NXT UK superstars are the future of the WWE – and seeing them make an appearance on a main roster event like the Royal Rumble is a huge thing for both the superstars themselves and the fans as this is a glimpse of things to come.
As it comes to the Women’s Royal Rumble match, I was able to predict four NXT and NXT UK superstars making a surprise appearance at the event:
Kairi Sane – Royal Rumble Entrant #14
Candice LeRae – Royal Rumble Entrant #17
Io Shirai – Royal Rumble Entrant #23
Rhea Ripley – Royal Rumble Entrant #24
The four women that I predicted would make an appearance in the Women’s Royal Rumble did pretty good in the event, with Kairi Sane and Rhea Ripley each eliminating women during the event. Sane eliminated one person (Sarah Logan) and Ripley eliminating three women (Kacy Catanzaro, Zelina Vega, and Dana Brooke). And while Kairi Sane eliminated one woman, her and Candice LeRae were eliminated fairly quickly by Ruby Riott with assistance of the other members of the Riott Squad. Io Shirai and Rhea Ripley especially had great showings at the Royal Rumble, lasting a good while before being eliminated – Shirai by Nia Jax and Ripley by Bayley.
As it pertains to the Men’s Royal Rumble match, I was able to predict three NXT and NXT UK superstars making a surprise appearance at the event:
Johnny Gargano – Royal Rumble Entrant #6
Pete Dunne – Royal Rumble Entrant #18
Aleister Black – Royal Rumble Entrant #21
The three men that I predicted would appear in the Men’s Royal Rumble all did fairly well and each lasted a good while with both Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black eliminating one man each. Gargano eliminated Jinder Mahal and Aleister Black surprisingly eliminating Dean Ambrose. And while Pete Dunne didn’t manage to eliminate a single man during the match, he showed why he is the future of the WWE and why he will one day be a champion on the main roster by showing the WWE Universe why he is called the “Bruiserweight” by showing off his joint-manipulation skills and hard-hitting shots during the match.
All in all, the NXT and NXT UK superstars that made an appearance at the Royal Rumble highlighted why they are the future of the WWE and why they will be the faces that fans will cheer for years to come. When each of these superstars make it up to the main roster is debatable – and I, for one, hope a couple of them get called up sooner rather than later – but there can be no denying just how talented and exciting these superstars are. All of them have the potential to be future champions on either Raw or SmackDown and all of them are sure to have large followings within the WWE Universe.
