WrestleMania 35: 4 ways Braun Strowman could be eliminated from the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal

WWE has announced three matches for the WrestleMania 35 kickoff show at MetLife Stadium on April 7, including the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

The match has been won by Cesaro, The Big Show, Baron Corbin, Mojo Rawley and Matt Hardy since it was introduced at WrestleMania 30. In the past, the match has been built around Superstars including Big Show and Kane, but the attention this year has centred around Braun Strowman and SNL duo Colin Jost and Michael Che.

As the most prominent figure from Monday Night Raw in the match, it is only natural that, from a storyline perspective, Strowman enters the Battle Royal as the favourite to win. However, as regular WWE viewers will know, it would be wise to expect a few shenanigans in this match, especially considering that two celebrities have been added to the mix.

Other than Strowman, there are still several credible Superstars from Raw and SmackDown Live who will enter the match as potential winners, including Apollo Crews, EC3, Andrade, Ali and The Hardy Boyz.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at four ways that “The Monster Among Men” could be eliminated from Sunday’s over-the-top extravaganza.

---

#4 Colin Jost and Michael Che join forces

WWE fans generally don’t take too kindly to celebrities making appearances in WWE, and Colin Jost and Michael Che definitely fit into that category. The SNL duo have been portrayed as heels heading into WrestleMania, so at least they are fully embracing the boos and groans from the audience, but that doesn’t make their presence in the Battle Royal any less unbearable for fans inside MetLife Stadium.

The worst case scenario for fans would be if Jost and Che caught Braun Strowman off guard and threw him over the top rope. It would likely result in mainstream news outlets picking up the story before WrestleMania even starts, which would be great publicity for WWE.

As for the Strowman character, this would be disastrous for someone who looked like a nailed-on Universal Championship holder just a few months ago. So, looking at it from that perspective, it would be a big surprise if he were to be eliminated by two guys who have no credentials to even be in this Battle Royal, but stranger things have happened!

#3 Everybody eliminates him

We can expect Braun Strowman to rack up plenty of eliminations in the Battle Royal. He has only competed in four Royal Rumble matches so far in his career, including the Greatest Royal Rumble, but he has already made 30 eliminations. To put that into context, The Big Show competed in 12 Rumbles and eliminated a total of 31 people.

In previous Rumbles/Battle Royals, the rest of the participants have been known to target Strowman as early as possible. The most notable time that this happened came at WrestleMania 33, where both he and Big Show were thrown over the top rope by several Superstars before the Battle Royal had even hit the halfway mark.

There has been the odd occasion when a sole Superstar has been able to eliminate “The Monster Among Men”, with Brock Lesnar, Baron Corbin and Seth Rollins being recent Rumble examples. Regardless of whether or not that happens on Sunday, expect to see several Superstars work together at various stages in an attempt to eliminate the Battle Royal’s biggest threat.

#2 Lars Sullivan elimination

With one day to go until WrestleMania 35, it remains to be seen if Lars Sullivan will make an appearance at the event. The former NXT Superstar was scheduled to appear on Raw in January but, due to a reported anxiety attack, he did not debut on the main roster and he has not been seen on WWE television since.

The man himself this week teased an appearance during Elias’ musical performance at WrestleMania, tweeting: “They don’t know what to do with ya huh? I’ll tell ya what, the ol Sullster knows exactly what to do with ya. All I’m saying is you better be playing a good song at Mania.”

It was also reported recently by the Wrestling Observer that Sullivan will return “imminently”, which suggests that he could appear at WrestleMania or, at the very least, on Raw or SmackDown Live before the Superstar Shake-Up ends on April 16.

If “The Freak” does show up at WrestleMania, Braun Strowman would be an obvious rival. The two men both have freakish strength, hence the nickname, and a possible feud between them was speculated way back in November 2018 when Sullivan vignettes began airing at Survivor Series.

#1 Bray Wyatt returns

WWE has revisited lots of storylines recently that have dated back several years, from Becky Lynch-Charlotte Flair to Triple H-Batista to the latest reunion of The Shield.

In Bray Wyatt’s case, he has had multiple Shield-esque reunions with the original Wyatt Family members, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, over the last few years, but he is yet to encounter the fourth member of the family, Braun Strowman, since they were split apart in the 2016 Superstar Shake-Up.

It seems inevitable that the two will be involved in a storyline with each other again one day, either as allies or enemies, after Strowman essentially surpassed his former leader to become one of the most prominent Superstars on WWE programming.

It would obviously be a little underwhelming to see a feud of this magnitude begin on a PPV kickoff show, but at least it would allow fans to forget about the Colin Jost and Michael Che appearances and allow them to focus on what should be an epic rivalry between two former Wyatt Family members.