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EditorialTop Contenders for Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal 2019 at WrestleMania...

Top Contenders for Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal 2019 at WrestleMania 35

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So far, only three people have been confirmed for the 6th annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal match at WrestleMania 35: Braun Strowman and Saturday Night Live cast members Colin Jost and Michael Che.

However, the entire purpose of this match is to act as a funnel for everybody who doesn’t have another spot on the card, meaning we can expect well over 20 superstars currently on the sidelines to participate in some fashion, whether or not they’re announced ahead of time.

In past years, winners have ranged from all over the betting pool with Cesaro (an up-and-comer), Big Show (an obvious pick and legend), Baron Corbin (a surprise NXT star), Mojo Rawley (a midcarder with a celebrity friend) and Matt Hardy (a veteran who formed a partnership with a returning enemy during this match). Anything can happen regarding who competes in the ATGMBR and the win is certainly up for grabs as anybody from Curt Hawkins to Shaquille O’Neal has a shot.

So out of all the potential candidates, who are some of the best bets and most logical choices to walk out of WrestleMania with the win? Here are my top 5 options:

1) Braun Strowman

Let’s not play any games and just get the most obvious one out of the way first, because right now, Strowman is not only the single legitimate star advertised for this match, he’s also likely to be the largest.

The Monster Among Men continually fails to win the big matches, save for last year’s Raw Tag Team Championship victory, but the ATGMBR has been proven over the past five years to not actually matter all that much to WWE, so there’s no reason to believe he’ll come up short on this. Winning has no bearing on anything going forward. It isn’t a championship they’d need to book around when they prefer Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar, which has killed Strowman’s big match percentage in the past two years.

Having Jost and Che in this also dictates one of two things happens: either they last until the end with Strowman and have their moment in the ring after everybody else has been thrown out, or they are immediately tossed aside and the match resumes after they’re disposed of.

I’m more willing to bank on the former, and in that scenario, Strowman is not going to lose to them. He would be the last man standing and the winner, posing tall while the commentary team puts over how Jost and Che shouldn’t have pissed him off.

There’s still a chance that someone runs in and tosses Strowman over the top rope to win the match after that, though, which brings us to the other possible choices.

2) Lars Sullivan

If there is one person who can win this match by screwing over Strowman at the very last minute, my money is on Lars Sullivan.

Supposedly, he was penciled in for a match against John Cena for this show, which never came to fruition due to his panic attack and subsequent removal from his scheduled push to the main roster. We’ve yet to see him at all, he hasn’t been mentioned in months, and yet, WWE continues to say that they haven’t given up on him.

Perhaps the game plan changed to “you can win the ATGMBR and that’s how we’ll debut you, so you can look really strong.” Then, The Freak can start a program with The Monster Among Men, and it pretty much writes itself. Strowman puts over Sullivan, who looks like a true force to be reckoned with after beating such a big guy in Strowman, which makes him a possible contender for Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns—whichever superstar is holding the Universal Championship after Brock Lesnar (I’m not convinced it’s Rollins).

This would check off numerous things, being that he’s big so it makes sense why he could win, he’d be a surprise entrant, this would give him a good jumping point for his push and it’s not too deep of a commitment that WWE would be hesitant to pull the trigger on him.

3) Kevin Owens

Clearly, the plan for the WWE Championship for WrestleMania wasn’t Kofi Kingston until somewhat recently, as he wasn’t even scheduled to be in the Elimination Chamber match, but WWE opted to go with the momentum and swap him with Kevin Owens for Fastlane.

This means as much as it’s a good thing Kingston is getting what he deserves, Owens had to have his title match ripped away from him in order for that to happen. Since then, KO hasn’t been set up for any alternative match on the already stacked card, so we can assume he’ll be competing in this match.

Owens is a big star that could have easily headlined WrestleMania 33 against Chris Jericho, so he shouldn’t be completely irrelevant on the card, and giving him a victory in this match would be a consolation prize, of sorts.

Sure, it doesn’t mean anywhere near as much as a title match, but he wasn’t going to beat Daniel Bryan anyway, so at least if he wins the ATGMBR, he’d be a victor and add something else to his list of accolades, right?

Owens is also the type of wrestler who knows how to work with what he’s been given, so he might be the best person suited in the history of ATGMBR winners to actually be able to turn that win into something good, instead of just fading into obscurity several weeks into May.

4) Andrade

Speaking of people having their WrestleMania match taken away from them, Andrade is another who was scheduled for something grander than what he’s currently advertised for (which is nothing).

Supposedly, the plan was for Andrade to face Rey Mysterio in a Hair vs. Mask match on the grandest stage of them all, yet we can see that WWE opted to go for Mysterio challenging Samoa Joe for the United States Championship instead. It’s pretty clear that was a rather late decision, as it seemed pretty definitive that Joe had put Mysterio behind him by beating him in their previous Fatal 4-Way.

Now, Andrade’s feud with Mysterio has been put on the backburner and he has nothing to do.

I’m of the opinion that I think that feud will still continue, and they’re only holding off on doing it until post-Mania, which may or may not have the United States Championship involved in it, but in the meantime, Andrade is most likely going to be just another competitor in this match with no fanfare.

If he wins, though, that would be a feather in his cap, potentially another bargaining chip for keeping him in WWE as there have been rumors he may want to leave, and it could lead to him boasting that he’s great and deserves a championship after having won this match, almost making it a No. 1 contender’s match of sorts, but to the United States Championship.

5) Mustafa Ali

While Owens and Andrade had WrestleMania matches taken away from them, Ali’s replacement was at Elimination Chamber, which set him back on his path to the big show.

It’s doubtful he would have been wrestling for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania or anything like that, but he might have been in the hunt for the United States title or something along those lines had WWE’s plans all worked out the way they had intended back at the end of 2018.

Assuming Strowman isn’t a guarantee, Sullivan isn’t the intended push, and Owens and Andrade aren’t given a win as payback for the card changing on them, Ali could be one of the best options to give this victory to in order to establish some more solid credibility to his name.

He’s an underdog, he’s well-liked, he’d be the first babyface to win this without some sort of odd circumstance (we can assume) and as mentioned before, this win is big enough to propel someone forward, but not a huge commitment in case WWE wants to backpedal on it.

If Bryan remains WWE champion going forward, an ATGMBR win for Ali could give him just cause to challenge for the title yet again, or send him to Monday Night Raw with some momentum on his side after the Superstar Shake-up.

Honorable Mentions

While those are my main five picks, I do think there are some other people who should be mentioned as possible contenders, even if I’m less hesitant to call them the top contenders.

Adam Cole: If anybody from NXT wins this, I think it will be Cole, with some help from the other members of The Undisputed ERA. That is, of course, if Cole isn’t NXT champion and if they’re ready to be moved up to the main roster. Having all four gang up on Strowman to send him over the top could be a good finish to this.

EC3: Boy, I’d really like to say this guy would be a sure thing, but the way he’s been relegated to Main Event makes me question if he’ll even be in the match. However, this would be a good way to get him back on track.

R-Truth: They’ve shown him a lot of love these past few months. Maybe they want to have a dance break or something?

Apollo Crews: My outsider random midcarder pick for this year is Crews. They don’t seem to really want to give him a genuine push, but still want to keep him in the discussion, so maybe he’s on that cusp where they’ll give him this win and then forget about him in a week or so like they did with Rawley?

Luke Harper / Bray Wyatt / Sami Zayn: All three of these guys are waiting on their return and could have a spot in this match for shock value. If that’s the case, they all jump straight to the top of the list for potential winners. Wyatt has a new haircut, Harper could be a great asset if he’s repackaged and who knows, maybe Zayn wants to come back as El Generico and having him win this will be a comedic spot for WrestleMania?

Who do you think will win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal this year? Tell us your predictions in the comments below!

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