Bobby Lashley wins the 2023 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

As has been the case for a couple years now, WWE held the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the episode of Friday Night SmackDown just before WrestleMania. It means not getting a large number of wrestlers a spot on the biggest show of the year but they get around that by calling it “WrestleMania SmackDown.”

Yeah.

This year in Los Angeles, Bobby Lashley entered as a huge favorite considering his match with Bray Wyatt never came to fruition like it was originally planned and he was the biggest name in the match, though some other worthy names — Karrion Kross, Xavier Woods, LA Knight, BOOGS, Braun Strowman — were also in.

Sure enough, Lashley pulled it out in the end.

Some notable happenings:

• Only Lashley and Strowman were given individual entrances.
• Baron Corbin was the first guy eliminated, and he was tossed within seconds of the bell ringing.
• Hit Row was again treated like a joke, with Michael Cole picking Top Dolla to win because “he can’t go over the top rope.” Naturally, he was one of the first guys eliminated, with Ashante Adonis quickly following.
• The Maximum Male Models got a pretty damn good response from the live crowd before they were tossed by Dexter Lumis and Johnny Gargano, respectively.
• A big theme within the match was tag teams being eliminated one right after the other.
• They did multiple big men showdowns — with Lashley and Kross squaring up, then Bronson Reed and Strowman doing the same.
• The final four: Knight, Reed, Strowman, Lashley.
• HEAVY boos when Reed tossed Knight from the match.
• Not nearly as big of a reaction when he eliminated Strowman.
• Plenty of cheers for Lashley tossing Reed to win the match.

We’ll see if this is the only moment Lashley gets this weekend.

Get complete SmackDown results and coverage of this week’s show right here.