Andre the Giant Battle Royal Winner Crowned on SmackDown Before WrestleMania
The WrestleMania tradition of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal continued Friday night on SmackDown, with Bobby Lashley eliminating Bronson Reed to take the coveted trophy. WrestleMania cards are a stacked affair, even with it moving to a two-night event. This is probably why WWE decided to move the Andre the Giant Battle Royal to the SmackDown before WrestleMania 39, where the Superstars that don't have a match for WrestleMania can still be a part of the big weekend. Some WrestleMania changes had to be made for Bray Wyatt having to pull out due to an injury, leaving Bobby Lashley without an opponent.
The final four contestants in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal were Bobby Lashley, Bronson Reed, LA Knight, and Braun Strowman. After the crowd was firmly behind LA Knight, he wound up eliminated by Bronson Reed. Once Braun Strowman went over the top rope, it came down to Lashley and Reed, with the latter winning and celebrating with the crowd afterward.
"Right now, we're trying to figure out what I'm going to do, being the All Mighty former WWE Champion and everything like that, still in search of finding that big matchup," Bobby Lashley told Denise Salcedo on Instinct Culture (h/t Fightful). "That's what everybody wants to do when they go to WrestleMania, they want to have a big iconic matchup in front of hundreds of thousands of fans and do what we love. Right now, I'm kind of half and half, getting ready for it and preparing for that day. I have a big match on Friday night, hopefully, that trickles over and causes something big for Saturday or Sunday."
"I have no idea," he added when asked about the status of the Wyatt match. "All I know is that I think I provoke fear in a lot of people. You can go out there with me, we can have a great match, but at the end of the day, The All Mighty always comes through. I'm looking for him, I'm looking for whoever wants to step up. Right now, a lot of people in the business are looking like, 'this is going to be a fun match for me.' If you want a real challenge, I'm the real challenge for anybody on the roster."
WWE's WrestleMania 39 takes place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood (Los Angeles), California on April 1-2. Stay tuned for live, full coverage of the event this weekend!