Andre the Giant Battle Royal set for next week’s WWE SmackDown
WWE will hold its annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on next week’s SmackDown.
As announced during this week’s episode, the ninth edition of the Battle Royal will be held on the March 31 SmackDown in Los Angeles at the Crypto.com Arena. Twenty-eight competitors were shown on the graphic advertising the match. They are:
- Joaquin Wilde
- Cruz Del Toro
- Mace
- Mansoor
- Karl Anderson
- Luke Gallows
- Shelton Benjamin
- Cedric Alexander
- Angel
- Humberto
- Ashante Adonis
- Top Dolla
- Santos Escobar
- Dexter Lumis
- Butch
- Ridge Holland
- Dolph Ziggler
- Mustafa Ali
- Rick Boogs
- Elias
- Johnny Gargano
- Xavier Woods
- LA Knight
- Bobby Lashley
- Karrion Kross
- Baron Corbin
- Bronson Reed
- Madcap Moss
The field includes two previous Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winners in Moss (2022) and Corbin (2016).
The Andre the Giant Battle Royal was instituted in 2014, with Cesaro winning the inaugural edition. The match has been held each year since, with the exception of 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This will be the third consecutive year that the Battle Royal will be held on the final SmackDown before WrestleMania, while the first six were all held at WrestleMania events.
A face-to-face with WrestleMania opponents Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes is also set for the show.
Paul Heyman announced during a promo on Friday’s show that Reigns will be live on SmackDown next week for one final face-to-face with Rhodes ahead of their WrestleMania 39 bout for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
The March 31 show, branded WrestleMania SmackDown, is the final stop ahead of WrestleMania 39 on Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2.
