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Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Battle Royal’s are tough. They really are. You load a ring full of guys so much that can all barely fit and then expect them to pull off some quality entertainment. It doesn’t usually happen. I mean really, when was the last battle royal that knocked your socks off? It was great to see Cesaro win the inaugural ATGMBR, that was fun, but the matchup that point was just okay. And then the following two ATGMBR’s were just about the same except the conclusion wasn’t as fun.
Really the only part of any battle royal that is entertaining is when you get down to the final 4 or 5 superstars. But the preceding 7 or 8 minutes is basically a ring full of guys slapping each other’s chests until the lower card guys have all anti-climatically been tossed out and all that remain are the few guys that most people figured had the best shots at winning. But this year, that didn’t even happen. The final 3 wrestlers were Mojo Rawley, Killian Dane, and Jinder Mahal. Not exactly a Murderer’s Row of a lineup.
Sure, it was kind of fun to see Rob Gronkowski get in there. I’m a New Englander and a die-hard Pats fan but at the end of the day, it just made no sense. Gronk jumped the barricade only to get stopped by security and then suddenly security decided “Ehhhh…it’s cool. Go ahead. This is normal at a wrestling event.” And sorry, but Rawley was the wrong choice here. This should’ve either been Sami Zayn or Braun Strowman’s night and because it wasn’t, an event representing one of the greatest superstar’s of all time continues to mean less and less.
Verdict: Did Not Meet Expectations