WWE promoted this week's episode of SmackDown as a special WrestleMania edition and one of the featured matches was the annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
That match didn't take place last year at WrestleMania 36 due in large part to the pandemic not allowing many people to be in the same location at the same time. It could have easily returned this year, but WWE decided—for whatever reason—to put it on Friday Night SmackDown instead.
Perhaps it was a means to make FOX happy by treating the blue brand like a bigger deal and not an afterthought. Maybe it was because WWE truly wanted all the other matches at 'Mania much more and felt time constraints, so something had to be cut and this was low on the totem pole.
Whatever the case may be, 22 Superstars were announced to be in the match:
- Akira Tozawa
- Angel Garza
- Cedric Alexander
- Drew Gulak
- Elias
- Erik
- Gran Metalik
- Humberto Carillo
- Jaxson Ryker
- Jey Uso
- Kalisto
- King Corbin
- Lince Dorado
- Mace
- Murphy
- Mustafa Ali
- Ricochet
- Shelton Benjamin
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- Slapjack
- T-Bar
- Tucker
During the show, which was recorded in advance from inside the WWE ThunderDome at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jey Uso was victorious by last eliminating Shinsuke Nakamura to win the match.
History has shown this doesn't mean anything, sadly. Every past winner of this, as well as the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, have had their pushes dropped within a few weeks, if they even got started at all. Chances are, Jey Uso won't get much momentum out of this and it will be forgotten about by next week. However, at least this takes away some of the negativity he's had recently where he's been nothing but the loser sidekick for Roman Reigns.
What did you think of the match? Were you rooting for someone else to win? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!