With the 2023 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal rapidly approaching, WWE performers from across the brands are looking to find an advantage heading into the match in the hopes of elevating their stock, getting into their opponent's heads, and maybe, just maybe, sneaking their way onto the WrestleMania 39 card.
After watching Xavier Woods turn to the power of social media to cut an impassioned promo declaring his intentions to win the ‘Dre, and then the Intercontinental Championship, Karrion Kross decided to take a page out of his fellow SmackDown star's book in order to provide fans with some context for the match… and to borderline threaten the 19 other participants in the match.
“Good evening; this Friday is the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, Kross began, Friday night, on SmackDown,” Kross said. “Now, I’m sure you as a fan have at some point in your life wondered what it’s like to be in a match like that. Everybody’s in the ring, you’ve got to throw each other out, last man standing. I’m sure you’ve thought about things you would do, how you’d win, what number you’d like to come out. I’m going to give you the inside scoop on what I anticipate seeing this Friday. The things you might not be able to see through the screen.
“I’m expecting to see competitors walking out there, getting into that ring, and some of them being broken. Before the match even starts, wondering why they aren’t on WrestleMania, wondering if next year, when this whole things starts over again, if their greatest efforts will lead them to being on the most important wrestling card ever, every single year. And they’re going to bring that energy into the ring with them, and I’m going to pick those people off real fast – they’re easy prey. And then there are the people coming out, highly motivated, thinking that they’re going to make a big name winning this thing. And truthfully, I like throwing those people out the most, because there’s just this look on their face when you see their backs hit the floor. The shock, because they really thought they were going to win.
“And this Friday, what I’m looking forward to the most, yet again, is taking something away from someone who truly deserves it. Because no matter where the time is told, in the end, everybody pays the toll.”
Jeez, if Karrion Kross ultimately pulls out the victory and hoists the Andre the Giant Battle Royal trophy above his head, his message will look downright prophetic. If, however, he loses, to one of the other former champions, in the match or otherwise, well, this will look downright silly in hindsight.
Dear @WWE Universe,
I have a question for you to answer for me. In a Universe full of rules that decide what we deserve or what we receive above our own honest efforts or selfish false entitlements:
Why do we continue to follow the rules if we are not in control?
— Karrion Kross (@realKILLERkross) March 28, 2023
Bobby Lashley is looking past the Andre the Giant Battle Royal.
While Kross is looking to crush the dreams of his WrestleMania 39-less opponents in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, one opponent who is guaranteed a spot on the show is none other than “The All Mighty” Bobby Lashley, even if it's a bit of a mystery who he will be wrestling at “The Showcase of the Immortals.” Speaking with Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture about not only being a participant in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but his as-of-yet unconfirmed opponent at WrestleMania 39, Lashley noted that Los Angeles has a big fight feel at the moment and that after taking care of business on Friday, he hopes to put in similar work on Saturday or Sunday too.
“It’s a big fight feel, WrestleMania is always going to be that way. Right now, we’re trying to figure out what I’m going to do, being the All Mighty former WWE Champion and everything like that, still in search of finding that big matchup. That’s what everybody wants to do when they go to WrestleMania, they want to have a big iconic matchup in front of hundreds of thousands of fans and do what we love. Right now, I’m kind of half and half, getting ready for it and preparing for that day. I have a big match on Friday night, hopefully, that trickles over and causes something big for Saturday or Sunday.”
Asked who he expects to wrestle at Mania, be it Bray Wyatt or an as-of-yet unknown foe, Lashley noted that whomever he steps into the ring with is in for a fight.
“I have no idea. All I know is that I think I provoke fear in a lot of people,” Lashley noted. “You can go out there with me, we can have a great match, but at the end of the day, The All Mighty always comes through. I’m looking for him, I’m looking for whoever wants to step up. Right now, a lot of people in the business are looking like, ‘this is going to be a fun match for me.’ If you want a real challenge, I’m the real challenge for anybody on the roster.”
Welp, while his actual match is very much up in the air, one thing is official: whomever Lashley wrestles at WrestleMania 39, be it Karrion Kross or someone else, is in for the fight of their lives.
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