The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is returning on Friday Night SmackDown, and while in years past, WWE has never quite pushed the winner all that much, it is still nevertheless an honor to win during WrestleMania Weekend.
Who stands the best chances of winning this year? Let's take a look at the viable contenders and choose a top five!
At the moment, WWE has not announced any of the Superstars who will be competing in this year's match. Sometimes, a graphic will show most of the field, but this year, it's just the statue itself on that image.
Theoretically, we can expect this to be limited to just the Raw and SmackDown rosters, instead of including any of the branches of NXT. That means proper NXT, EVOLVE, and LFG rosters. However, it would always be fun to see a few of those names show up, if not just to give them some shine. None of them would have any chance of winning except Oba Femi or Trick Williams, though.
Injured wrestlers, or those who have been out of action for quite some time, would be Apollo Crews, Bronson Reed, Ilja Dragunov, JD McDonagh, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Sheamus, Tonga Loa, and The Wyatt Sicks. They can all be counted out as well. It's been long enough without seeing Omos that he might as well be tossed in with that group.
That leaves 32 names to work with, and the vast majority of them can be eliminated from the running just because they simply aren't as big of a deal, as they're either mostly enhancement talent or part of a tag team in a way that wouldn't make sense for them to be singled out. Those include Akira Tozawa, Angel Garza, Austin Theory, Brutus Creed, Carlito, Carmelo Hayes (sadly), Cruz Del Toro, Dragon Lee, Elton Prince, Grayson Waller, Humberto Carrillo, Joaquin Wilde, Johnny Gargano, Julius Creed, Kit Wilson, Otis, Pete Dunne, R-Truth, Santos Escobar, Tama Tonga, The Miz, Tommaso Ciampa, and Tyler Bate.
That actually only leaves a handful of names: Andrade, Braun Strowman, Jimmy Uso, Karrion Kross, Ludwig Kaiser, Rey Fenix, Shinsuke Nakamura, Solo Sikoa, and of course, Randy Orton, if he doesn't get added to the WrestleMania card in some fashion.
It's very possible Braun Strowman and Jimmy Uso were written off television with their last matches, and that WWE is treating those like injuries. Unless they're planned to win—which would be odd for Strowman to do it a second time—it's best to keep them out of the match entirely.
Andrade and Karrion Kross are big enough names to win, but WWE doesn't push them consistently enough to believe in it happening. This could very well work for Shinsuke Nakamura as compensation for him having to drop the United States Championship back to LA Knight, but what push would he get out of it?
As far as I see it, the top 5 most likely options really comes down to Randy Orton, Solo Sikoa, Rey Fenix, Ludwig Kaiser, and actually, someone who isn't even on this list.
Since Orton specifically talked about having a match at WrestleMania, I can't see WWE giving him this instead. He just has to be doing something on the actual show, instead, so I'd rank Randy Orton #5. His sheer star power and lack of having an official match makes him a necessity to keep on this list, just by proxy of not knowing for sure.
Solo Sikoa would be #4. Strangely, despite how he was such a prominent heel for the past 12 months, he just isn't being treated like that lately. WWE has avoided giving him a WrestleMania match for the third year in a row. If that's not a sign that he's not trusted in that capacity, what else is there? He'll likely feud with Jacob Fatu for the United States Championship after WrestleMania, and it's a possibility winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is the method for him to do that, but he hasn't been in the ATGMBR ever, either.
Kaiser would be #3, as he fits the mold for who they tend to give this to. In most situations, it's a midcard talent that they like, but don't seem to be super willing to give the midcard championships to, if it isn't a semi-big name that has nothing to do on the card (like Bobby Lashley, Big Show, etc).
#2 is actually a tie between Aleister Black or Miro. We know that they've re-signed with WWE, and can be expected to return sometime soon. Black, in particular, has had vignettes teasing his comeback. If neither of them ends up answering an open challenge from Orton at WrestleMania or something else akin to that, I think the other could make their return here by winning it.
The trouble with that is the participants typically don't get entrances. Only a few people do, at most. You can't have one of these guys return without an entrance, as that would nullify the big pop. But if you have them make an entrance, it spoils the match, as nobody is going to be thinking anyone but them will win after returning.
#1 would be Rey Fenix. He's new, fresh, exciting, and they clearly like him. He's in the middle of a push and is undefeated. Considering the possibility of a problem with the big return idea, Fenix doesn't have that problem, as he's already wrestled twice. He would just get one of the few televised entrances along with some other important names like Andrade, Nakamura, and so on. As Penta is fighting for the midcard title on WrestleMania itself, an accolade for Fenix is well within reason. Having him pull this off wouldn't be at all surprising, to the point that unless a big return or Orton gets officially announced for this, you should place your bets on Fenix coming out with the big win this year.