100 Greatest WWE WrestleMania Moments
83. Andre The Giant Wins His Battle Royal (WrestleMania II)
WWE makes a lot of noise about the importance of their Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal before each WrestleMania rolls around. In fact, they make a ton of noise about Andre's legacy in general. That could lessen the further away they move from Vince McMahon's influence, but it remains to be seen if Triple H will get sick of these setpiece-style multi-mans. They don't even give stragglers a payday on the show itself these days; that Andre match has been moved to SmackDown in recent years.
The original created a future trend without even knowing it.
At 'Mania II, Andre entered a WWF vs. NFL Battle Royal alongside workers like Bret Hart, Bruno Sammartino and Pedro Morales, as well as football stars like William Perry, Russ Francis and Ernie Holmes. The hope was that casual sports fans would tune in to see their gridiron favourites tangle in the ring whilst the WWF sneakily booked itself to appear superior to real world sports. Fair enough, this was their playground, not the NFL's.
Andre The Giant will forever inspire awe due to his jaw-dropping size and the mystique surrounding such a large man performing athletic moves like dropkicks in his prime. By 1986, he'd slowed significantly, so this Battle Royal was created partly so he'd have something to do on the biggest show of the year. In turn, it'd become known as "his" match.
The Memorial WWE puts on each year is a love letter to what happened at 'Mania II. In spirit, if nothing else, this was the first ever Andre Battle Royal. No-one knew back then that the likes of Baron Corbin, Jey Uso and Cesaro would stand in front of a statue matching Andre's pose.