Unlike the last couple of years, WWE NXT had their presence felt in the latest bygone Royal Rumble match, last weekend. Although the men’s Rumble match didn’t have any names from the developmental territory, the women’s counterpart had some pleasant surprises in the form of a few female NXT talents.
Going by the latest reports, several WWE NXT female roster members flew out to San Antonio, Texas from Orlando, Florida for last Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble. Thus we experienced surprise entrants like the NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez in her home state of Texas alongside Indi Hartwell and Zoey Stark in the 30-woman annual battle royal.
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As noted above, this came as a total opposite to last year’s Royal Rumble, the final one under Vince McMahon regime where the top management was reportedly hesitant to include WWE NXT 2.0 superstars. They’re not interested to utilize the emerging talents in an event featuring main roster superstars despite the fact that they have entered previous Rumble matches.
One of the head honchos of WWE NXT, Shawn Michaels told Fightful Select on Thursday that main roster higher-ups let him know “who they wanted, and he provided feedback” ahead of the 30-woman melee scheduled from the Alamodome.
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It was added that the main roster executives also specifically stated that they “only needed female talent and were good on the men’s side.” Prior to this, the same source had reported last week that WWE was more interested in “unconventional surprises” for this year’s Rumble, rather than bringing in retired legends. Hence, we only saw WWE Hall of Famer Booker T as the only inactive superstar in the Men’s Rumble.
The fact was further established after Michelle McCool appeared to be the only legend in the battle royal in the Women’s Rumble. It rather included the surprise comebacks of Nia Jax and Chelsea Green, Doudrop as Piper Niven, and the above-mentioned WWE NXT Superstars.
The source also added that Ivy Nile was also backstage for the Women’s Royal Rumble “as an alternate” if and whenever she needed to be utilized. However, the three WWE NXT women’s roster members – Perez, Hartwell, and Stark had a one–off night on the main roster as the Rumble entries won’t serve as the expected call-up to the main roster unlike some of the previous years.
