The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was once a regular part of WrestleMania, but the match quietly disappeared from the event following the pandemic era. A new report has now shed light on why WWE made that change.
The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was originally introduced as a way to honor the legacy of Andre the Giant while also providing more members of the roster with an opportunity to appear on the WrestleMania card. Over the years, the match became a recognizable tradition tied to WrestleMania weekend.
However, in recent years the battle royal has no longer taken place during WrestleMania itself.
During the March 14, 2026 Fightful Select Q&A, Sean Ross Sapp explained that WWE shifted its philosophy after the pandemic and no longer feels the need to include as many wrestlers as possible on the WrestleMania card.
“I’ve asked a million times because I’ve always thought this was the way to do it, to get everybody on the show. And I was told, well, they don’t need to get everybody on the show anymore. That’s just not the way that they do it. They don’t have to do it like that.”
Instead, WWE has moved the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal to WrestleMania weekend episodes of WWE SmackDown rather than the premium live event itself. According to Sapp, that approach has remained consistent ever since the pandemic period.
“But I mean it’s not just the Women’s Battle Royal. It never returned to WrestleMania on the men’s side either after the pandemic. Like they didn’t do it in 2020 and they’ve never brought it back after that for actual WrestleMania. It’s been on SmackDown every year since.”
While the match is no longer part of the WrestleMania card, Sapp said he still believes there could be ways to reintroduce the concept during the event if WWE wanted to revisit it.
“But yeah, I had been told they didn’t necessarily need to do the ‘get everyone on the card’ thing and they’ve kind of moved away from that culture. But I do think that doing one on each night of WrestleMania would be kind of cool.”
The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal debuted at WrestleMania XXX and has been won by several notable WWE stars over the years. Although it is now held on SmackDown during WrestleMania weekend, the match remains one of the more recognizable traditions connected to the event.
