5 Ways to make the Andre the Giant Battle Royal more meaningful

How to make it feel as good as it looks

It’s good to see that The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal has been made into a yearly event. It may not be on the forefront of everyone’s minds come WrestleMania season, but fans will often think about who they’d like to see win it and how the victory could potentially help a star in need of a push.

There are multiple problems with the match, however. One of those issues is that the winner never really goes on to do anything, and fans pretty much forget about the whole affair after a few months when the victor stops carrying the trophy around with them.

That being said, there are a few tweaks the company could make to elevate the profile of the match and make winning it more important. Here are five ideas to do so:


#1 Make it an NXT only event

Who gets the call up?

This would give the event much more focus and would allow the NXT brand a good few months of story building up to Wrestlemania. The winner of the event would receive a kind of 'wildcard' promotion up to either RAW or SmackDown.

Post ‘Mania season is typically when the more expected talents get the call up anyway. It would be perfect for someone who is showing a bit of promise in developmental, who the fans aren't necessarily expecting to get the call.

Or somebody who is already at the level of the main roster and doesn't necessarily need to hold the NXT title.

Perhaps somebody like Tye Dillinger could do with winning this match. He doesn’t seem that close to the NXT title at the moment, however, his current gimmick is enough to endear him to fans, so a RAW call up due to winning the battle royal would be a nice career move for the Perfect 10.

#2 Give the winner a future shot at a mid-card title

Make them still mean something

The competitors in the battle royal aren't normally ready for a world title shot. In fact, it feels like most of them are there because they have nothing else to do. This means that the winners are normally hovering around the mid card, so why not give them a shot at the mid-card titles?

Similar to the Rumble, the winner would be able to choose whether they wanted a match for the US or IC championship at the next PPV. This might help to elevate the belts somewhat, and would at least give the titles some kind of storyline and meaning.

To make the battle royal feel special under these circumstances would need somebody who hasn’t held either belt numerous times before, but is ready to do so. Somebody like Xavier Woods would benefit greatly from this (which would be a lot better position for him than ‘host’ of Wrestlemania).

#3 Give the winner a belt rather than a trophy

a Belt is easier to carry!

The problem with winning a trophy is that you only see the individual carrying it around for a few weeks before it vanishes for another year. It's a bit much to be carrying it around everywhere in the first place, so when it is on TV it normally just sits at the side of the ring while the winner hits a promo.

Having a belt would be easier for the winner to carry, and having it around their waist or over their shoulder just looks that bit more prestigious. You would essentially be giving somebody a dry run at making themselves look good with a title, allowing management to see what it would be like for that person to win a World Championship in the future.

When the next year's event comes around, the 'Champion' would automatically be entered in order to defend their title, again giving the other competitors something more tangible to fight for.

#4 Let the winner choose his own manager

Do it right this time?

One thing the WWE product is missing at the moment is good, effective managers. There have been some great storylines involving managers over the years, dating back to Freddie Blassie, the Heenan Family, Paul Ellering and Paul Heyman, to name but a few. If done right, having a manager can really jump start a wrestler's career.

The idea would be to have all of the managers compete for the attention of the battle royale winner. However, you would need to bring more managers in for this to work. Imagine segments involving Heyman, Lana, Zeb Coulter and Bob Backlund all making their cases for why the Superstar should join forces with them.

You could even bring in legends from the past with nothing else to do, like HBK and Austin, and offer to manage the winner. There are lots of possibilities here.

#5 Make it a women only event

They deserve it

The problem with the women's revolution is that when the big four PPVS come around, it can be a struggle to fit them all on the card. And considering how much talent there is right now, that can mean a lot of deserving talent missing out.

Making the BR a female only event would get main roster and NXT stars on the ‘Mania show and would free up the main event talent to fight for the two titles. It would also mean you'd get more one-on-one matches for the belts, rather than cramming as many names into the title scene as possible, like the company currently does.

Again, the winner of the match would choose whether to go after the Smackdown or RAW women's title. Much like a female Royale Rumble. If it were to happen this year, Nia Jax would feel like the obvious choice.

She isn’t currently in the title picture per se, but it is definitely on the cards. Getting her opportunity by beating 10 or 15 other women wouldn’t be a bad way to go about it.


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