With the full card for WrestleMania 35 still not revealed by the WWE officially yet, fans and insiders alike are scrambling at rumors about why certain matches haven’t been added yet or why some may be scrapped altogether. But WWE has now unveiled 29 of the 30 competitors for this year’s edition of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. With only one spot left in the pre-show tradition (and most likely a surprise NXT entrant or return, such as Bray Wyatt), it leaves more questions than answers. Although to be clear, 30 entrants are just the assumed number, as last year’s edition capped at an even 30 entrants, but the Andre Battle Royal has been far from consistent in its number of entrants. WrestleMania 33 had 33 entrants, WrestleMania 32 had 20 entrants, WrestleMania 31 had 30 entrants and the inaugural one at WrestleMania 30 had 31 enter.
Here’s a quick look at the 29 men announced.
- Braun Strowman
- Colin Jost & Michael Che of SNL fame
- Andrade
- Apollo Crews
- Titus O’Neil
- Tyler Breeze
- Jinder Mahal
- No Way Jose
- Bobby Roode
- Chad Gable
- Kalisto
- Gran Metalik
- Lince Dorado
- Bo Dallas
- Curtis Axel
- Heath Slater
- Rhyno
- Viktor
- Konnor
- Ali
- Shelton Benjamin
- Luke Gallows
- Karl Anderson
- Matt Hardy
- Jeff Hardy
- Otis
- Tucker
- EC3
Singles Competitors With No Match That Could Still Enter
With the possibility that WWE may once again go over the 30 man limit, as they did in 2014 and 2017, there could still be a handful of singles stars who could be entered. Here’s a quick list of the Raw and SmackDown Superstars who have yet to be announced for anything for WrestleMania’s main card.
- Aiden English
- Akira Tozawa
- Ariya Daivari
- Bray Wyatt
- Brian Kendrick
- Cedric Alexander
- The Colons (Epico & Primo)
- Curt Hawkins
- Dean Ambrose
- Dolph Ziggler
- Drew Gulak
- Goldust
- Jack Gallagher
- Humberto Carrillo
- Luke Harper
- Mike Kanellis
- Oney Lorcan
- R-Truth
- Sami Zayn
- SaNitY (Eric Young, Killian Dain & Alexander Wolfe)
- Zack Ryder
Generally though, big returns like Wyatt or Zayn are kept for the Raw After Mania, so as not to get lost in the moments later in the card, but stranger things have happened. From this list alone, it’s easy to see at least one if not four to six more singles names from this list being added to the Battle Royal to fill it up. And that’s not including all the tag teams that are still out there.
The Tag Team Championships
For weeks now, some news sites have reported that the plan was to scrap both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team title matches from the WrestleMania 35 card to save room and a potential 17+ match card, and simply enter the champs into the Battle Royal, but with a week left to go, neither The Revival nor The Usos have been entered. This actually bodes well for the tag champs still having a match on the Grandest Stage of Them All, as with the names still out there who are active singles wrestlers, it would be hard pressed to find room for Dash, Dawson, Jimmy or Jey. Unless WWE goes well beyond their previous high of 33 entrants. But let’s be honest – most of these sites that said the tag matches had been scrapped also said that both the Andre the Giant and Women’s Battle Royals were also scrapped, and here we are with both in full effect.
Not to mention, there are still a handful of capable tag teams that have yet to be assigned to the Battle Royal, except for The Hardy Boyz, The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel), Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado & Kallisto) and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. It’s quite possible that the match this coming Monday night on Raw, where The Revival defends their Raw titles against NXT Dusty Rhodes Classic winners Aleister Black & Ricochet could end in a way that a rematch could be announced for WrestleMania 35 – which would mean that Black & Ricochet could be pulling double duty, as they’re facing War Raiders for the NXT Tag Team titles at NXT TakeOver: New York this coming Friday. Or perhaps Authors of Pain make a return this week, as the former champs have been off TV for a few months while Akam has been nursing a leg injury that should be near ready to go.
The SmackDown side appears to be heading towards a multi-team showdown, as they have multiple tag teams not assigned anything. The Usos are still champions, but so far The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus), Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura, and The New Day‘s Big E & Xavier Woods have nothing set for WrestleMania 35. A potential Fatal Four-Way for the titles, in perhaps a gimmick like a ladder match, could be how they shoehorn the final four tag teams from the Blue brand onto the big show. It’s potentially viable that Big E & Xavier Woods could be left out of the match and be used simply as insurance at ringside for Kofi Kingston in his match against WWE Champion Daniel Bryan (to offset Erick Rowan), but it would be a waste for them to miss another WrestleMania – they’ve missed two of the last four (hosting WrestleMania 33 in 2017 and on the Kick Off Show for WrestleMania 31 in 2015).
