All week, we here at Sports Al Dente will be previewing all 14 matches on the WrestleMania 34 super card. This is shaping up to be one of the biggest WrestleMania’s in recent history, as excitement levels for the show are at an all-time high.
For the fifth year in a row, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will take place on the “grandest stage of them all.” Introduced at WrestleMania 30, the battle royal is used to get every guy on the roster a chance to compete at WrestleMania. The battle royal has been used to elevate current stars like Cesaro, as well as introduce new ones like Baron Corbin. Here’s a quick preview of this year’s installment of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Andre the Giant stares towards the ring as the crowd looks on. Photo credit John McKeon – Under Creative Commons License.
The Match
The fifth annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
How We Got Here
This is a match that takes place at WrestleMania every year.
The History
The match was introduced in 2014 to honor the legacy of Andre the Giant. It has since become a fixture of WrestleMania, as this year marks the fifth time the battle royal is happening. The first four winners were Cesaro, Big Show, Baron Corbin, and Mojo Rawley. The inclusion of WWE legends and celebrities has been a mainstay of the match as well. The likes of Diamond Dallas Page, Tatanka, and Shaquille O’Neal have all been involved in the match.
The Feud
There really is no feud for the battle royal. Superstars on both Raw and Smackdown have matches leading up to the battle royal, with the winners usually declaring their intentions to win the battle royal at WrestleMania. Confirmed entrants into the match (as of April 2 at 10 a.m.) are Corbin, Rawley, Dash Wilder, Scott Dawson, Tye Dillinger, Matt Hardy, Dolph Ziggler, Fandango, Tyler Breeze, Heath Slater, Rhyno, and Goldust. Usually, 30 men compete in the battle royal every year.
Expectations
There isn’t much anticipation for the battle royal this year. The first year they did it was cool, and it was awesome to see Cesaro win it. But after he wasn’t elevated to a higher level, fan interest went way down with the match. Rawley has been almost non-existent since winning the match last year, leaving fans with no real reason to get excited about the match. I’m sure there’ll be a few surprises, like Rob Gronkowski last year, but the match itself isn’t getting too many people excited.
WrestleMania 34 takes place from The Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on April 8 with a special start time of 7 pm eastern/6pm central. The show is streaming live on the WWE Network.