Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal is an annual battle royal match featuring 20 or 30 superstars from the WWE roster trying to throw each other over the top rope. The last man standing in the ring gets awarded the Andre the Giant Trophy. The battle royal earlier took place on WrestleMania before being shifted to WrestleMania SmackDown, the last episode of SmackDown before The Grandest Stage of Them All.

History

A regular feature since WrestleMania XXX, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal has become an integral part of the pay-per-view event. The Battle Royal is held in honor of the late WWE Hall of Famer, Andre the Giant, who is considered one of the most beloved and revered superstars of Vince McMahon’s company. A one-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time WWF Tag Team Champion, and an all-time legend, he stood over seven feet tall and weighed 500 pounds. He was known as “The King of the Battle Royal” due to winning a large majority of such matches that he participated in.

About Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal begins with all participants in the squared circle at the same time, and competitors are eliminated once they are thrown over the top rope and both feet touch the floor. The last man remaining is the victor. The victor is awarded a trophy with a giant Andre the Giant atop it, which always makes for some entertaining photo ops.

Cesaro won the first-ever Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal after eliminating Big Show with a body slam, just as Hogan did to Andre at WrestleMania III. Big Show won the second edition, who last eliminated Damien Mizdow in the match. Baron Corbin won the third edition by eliminating Kane while the fourth edition was won by Mojo Rawley who was assisted by his friend, NFL player Rob Gronkowski. The fifth edition was won by Matt Hardy who last eliminated previous winner Baron Corbin.

Other than the trophy and the excitement, however, the Memorial Battle Royal does not hold much significance outside of the ring. WWE refers to it as, “an opportunity for the winner to carve out a legendary WrestleMania moment while catapulting his career to new heights,” but that status is dubious at best. Cesaro and Baron Corbin have both found success, but not really due to their respective Andre wins. Big Show and Matt Hardy already had Hall of Fame-worthy careers before they won theirs. Even the PWInsider magazine in 2017 stated the fact that it is a great show of talent but that match hasn’t meant anything so far and it really hasn’t.

This is one of the many aspects of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, that the WWE really needs to work upon. For starters, the company can give the winner an actual push reflecting some level of prestige that this match could allegedly win. That could come in the form of a push towards an upper mid-card or a main event-level superstar.

Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal 2024

Bronson Reed won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal 2024. He threw Ivar off the top rope in the end to finally win the battle royal. Before the 2024 edition, Reed had finished second in the previous year's edition at WrestleMania SmackDown.

Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal 2023

Similar to the trend being followed for the past three years, this year’s Battle Royal was also not held on WrestleMania night itself but instead took place during the special episode of SmackDown titled WrestleMania Smackdown on 31st March, 2023. Immense amount of talent participated in this year’s Battle Royal as well but in the end, Bobby Lashley was the one who eliminated Bronson Reed to take the trophy home.

List of Winners