It’s about to be WrestleMania week, and WWE is pulling out all the stops for next week’s shows, including the return of Andre The Giant Battle Royale. The big Battle Royal will take place next week on SmackDown, and the battle roster has been revealed to be Finn Balor, Jinder Mahal, Apollo, Commander Azeez, The Viking Raiders, Cedric Alexander, Shelton Benjamin, Damian Priest, Shanky, Madcap Moss, Reggie, Akira Tozawa, Mansoor, R-Truth, Robert Roode and Drew Gulak. It’s not the only big event of the evening, as there will also be an Intercontinental Championship game.
The match will be a triple threat match between Intercontinental Champion Ricochet, Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo. This comes after their altercation on last night’s SmackDown, which started with a match between Garza and Ricochet, but after Carrillo Ricochet interfered, he challenged him to a match right after.
NEXT FRIDAY the #Smack down! pic.twitter.com/7OOUem7ITZ
—WWE (@WWE) March 26, 2022
They fought and once again Ricochet was foul-played thanks to Garza, and now they’ll all be in the fight for the Intercontinental Title. It would be a big shock for the title to change hands so close to WrestleMania 38, but crazier things have happened.
The fact that United States Champion Finn Balor is part of the Andrew The Giant Battle Royal is also quite shocking. It’s rare for a title holder to be in the game, especially one of Balor’s stature, and winning this event shouldn’t rank higher than the United States title, so he doesn’t get much out of it. -something apart from filling a necessary place in the match, even if he wins it.
.@KingRicochet defend the #ICTitre vs @AngelGarzaWwe and @humberto_wwe in a Triple Threat Match next week on #WrestleMania #Smack down! pic.twitter.com/hQgPbTHaI8
—WWE (@WWE) March 26, 2022
As for the match itself, it doesn’t have the best history of propelling its winners. Victories for Cesaro and Baron Corbin (at WrestleMania 30 and 32 respectively) were best-case scenarios, especially for Corbin, since this was his WrestleMania debut. The other matches didn’t really do much for the winners, whether it was Big Show and Matt Hardy (already legends) or Braun Strowman and Mojo Rawley, who didn’t really benefit from their victory.
We’ll have to wait and see if that stays the case here or if anyone gets a real boost from it, although if I had to pick anyone who could benefit the most it would be someone like Apollo, Reggie, Madcap Moss or Mansoor. Either of these winners could use this as a platform to launch a new run off if WWE treats the match as a major deal and if they follow through with some sort of creative push or booking by the following.
Who do you want to see win the Battle Royal? Let us know in the comments or as always you can chat all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
