The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
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When WWE debuted the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, it was just a rebranding of the oft-occurring battle royal that took place before WrestleMania that existed solely to get more people on the card.
Associating the name of a legendary wrestler doesn’t make the match any more meaningful. It’s an illusion.
That’s not a bad thing, but it’s important to call it what it is. This year marks the fourth annual edition of the rebranded “get everyone on the show” match, and the second time it will be held on the kickoff show.
It’s an unimportant match, with the inaugural winner, Cesaro, being catapulted backwards after winning the match rather than receiving some momentum and a push in the right direction after he won the trophy.
The following year saw The Big Show take home the big trophy, and it was clear that the match, which took place on the pre-show, was nothing more than a way to get people on the card.
It had potential to be more than that, but a Big Show victory by last eliminating the super popular Damien Mizdow character was a missed opportunity and the solidification of the match being meaningless in the long run, or the short run, for that matter.
If it had been Big Show’s final match, which was rumoured at the time, it would have meant something, but that did not turn out to be the case.
Finally, last year’s bout saw NXT alum Baron Corbin make his WWE main roster debut with zero warning, entering to barely any crowd reaction because nobody expected him to be there and he hadn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire in NXT.
The match did make it to the main card, and Corbin won by last eliminating Kane. It was a victory that was from pretty far out of left field, but not the worst way to introduce a new, big man to the WWE roster. The problem was, just like in the two years prior, the victory didn’t mean very much.
For a couple of months WWE set up the trophy at ringside for Corbin’s matches, but the matches themselves were all pretty inconsequential and did nothing to further his career.
After the trophy disappeared, he continued to be announced as the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner, but it didn’t launch him into the stratosphere. He was just another guy on the roster having average-at-best matches in a stilted, poor storyline with Dolph Ziggler.
This year the trophy will probably go to Braun Strowman, because that makes the most sense, and WWE will make a big deal about it for a couple of months but that won’t enhance Braun’s status in the company.
He will continue to be a big guy without much direction, swallowed up on the RAW roster that has too many other names ahead of him to allow him to break out in a meaningful way.
