8 Ups And 11 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 33

7. Battle Royal A Sideshow

WrestleMania 33 Gronk
WWE.com

Boy, WWE sure loves its crossovers, doesn’t it?

It’s no secret ever since the first WrestleMania that WWE tends to go back to the well of celebrities in that elusive search for mainstream appeal. The company went to the well during the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, having Mojo Rawley’s good friend (in real life) and NFL superstar Rob Gronkowski jump into the ring and take out Jinder Mahal toward the end of the contest, then celebrated with Mojo after he won.

Turning the battle royal into a sideshow in its fourth year just further devalued the event, from a potential breakout moment to an opportunity to get mentioned on social media and on ESPN. On one hand, you can’t blame WWE for trying to get some ink, but on the other, Gronk isn’t Ronda Rousey. It isn’t like this will be talked about after Monday.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.