Ask 411 Wrestling: How Many Battles Royale Did Andre the Giant Win?

Welcome guys, gals, and gender non-binary pals, to Ask 411 . . . the last surviving weekly column on 411 Wrestling.

I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and I am here to answer some of your burning inquiries about professional wrestling. If you have one of those queries searing a hole in your brain, feel free to send it along to me at [email protected]. Don’t be shy about shooting those over – the more, the merrier.

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Bryan asks one of those current events questions that skips the line:

This year Wrestlemania is on Easter. Is that a first? I know they both take place in the spring, but have they ever taken place on on the same day? Would this interfere with people’s holiday plans and affect ticket sales? Would a pre-show midcard Easter egg hunt that ends in a fight be entertaining?

Yes, this is the first time in the history of the event that Wrestlemania and Easter have overlapped. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the timing of the event came from the City of Las Vegas. Easter weekend is historically bad for tourism, so they wanted a signature event that would boost revenue. Apparently, WWE decided that they were willing to be that event . . . I assume in exchange for some additional financial incentives.

It doesn’t seem that booking on top of the holiday has impacted ticket sales all that much. I don’t want to print precise numbers because they’ll likely be inaccurate when this article is published given the lead time I normally give between writing and publication. However, as of the time I’m putting this together, there are 3,000 to 5,000 tickets out for each night out of a total of 53,000. So, we’re not sold out, but it’s still well within the realm of possibility and, again, Vegas is probably making it worth their while financially even if they don’t sell every last seat. (To say nothing of increased ticket prices.)

I doubt that we’ll see an Easter egg hunt as part of the show, but I would like to see statistics on how many people attend church services on Wrestlemania Sunday so that we can definitely say whether Jesus or Cody is a bigger draw.

Zach won’t be here to read this answer, because he’s off playing in his rec softball league:

What happened to Psycho Sid in the WWF in 1997?  He was all over WWF T.V. until the mid-way point of the year, where he seemingly vanished and didn’t return.

He had a re-occurrence of an earlier neck injury and was released from the company so that he could go get surgery.

That’s it. A pretty simple explanation, really.

Mr. Ace Crusher is cleaning out the stables:

Is there any other stable, Japanese or otherwise, who have the highest ratio of members becoming first time world champions (within that stable’s home promotion) while that wrestler was part of or directly resulting from joining or betraying their stable, than Los Ingobernables de Japon? (I count 4/8 members: Naito (within stable), Shingo (within stable), EVIL (from betrayal), SANADA (from “leaving” to form his own stable). I suppose Evolution ties it with Orton and Batista making 2/4 (assuming we don’t count Mark Jindrak).

It’s a New Day, yes it is.

With Big E Langston and Kofi Kingston both becoming world champions as part of the group, two-thirds (or 66.6666%) of the New Day’s members have won a top prize while part of the faction, beating out both LIJ and Evolution.

Tyler from Winnipeg is dreaming of dream matches:

Could Cody Rhodes and Sting pull of a match in 2025?

Physically, I’m sure they could. Sting was just active in the ring last year, and it wouldn’t be hard to believe that he could get back into ring shape one last time if he wanted to.

Legally, it’s doubtful. Rhodes is obviously contracted to WWE, and by all reports Sting remains under some form of contract to AEW, and given the current state of relations between those companies, we’re not going to see inter-league play anytime soon.

Practically, it’s even more doubtful. Unlike a lot of wrestlers, when Sting says that he’s done, I believe that he’s done.

Much like Bret Hart, Jonfw2 knows there’s never been a right time to say goodbye:

In November ‘94 on Monday Night Raw, Jerry Lawler popped up on commentary with Vince after the Macho Man had pretty consistently been the color guy for a number of months.

It’s never surprising when a wrestler suddenly disappears from TV and is never mentioned, but what IS surprising is how Vince handled this one:

He made a very real (and frankly, very classy) announcement that WWF had not reached a contract with Randy and that Vince personally wished him best of success going forward.

Less than a month later, Savage was in WCW and never returned to WWF.

So my questions: Why the break from the “policy”, if you will, of not acknowledging people who left? Was Vince still hopeful that Macho might re-sign? Or did he know at this point Savage was going to Atlanta? And with all the rumors that still persist to this day, was this somehow a personal “read between the lines” message and not actually classy like it sounded?

Finally, who else since has WWE IRL announced was leaving? The only one I can think of is Dean Ambrose.

According to the November 14, 1994 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, which covered Savage’s departure from the WWF, it is actually a pretty simple story. Vince McMahon considered Randy Savage to be more than just an employee. He also considered the Macho Man to be a close personal friend. There’s not much more to it than that.

On the subject of wrestler departures being announced, the company acknowledges a ton of wrestler departure these days through internet and social media posts, and that’s a practice which goes back to the 1990s.

Of course, that’s different than the announcement of a wrestler’s departure on television. I can think of that happening on a few different occasions, including the Ultimate Warrior in 1996, Bret Hart in 1997, and Bryan Danielson in 2010.

Gareth is precariously balanced on the top rope:

I saw a clip of a WWF battle royale from around 1995 recently which was won by the British Bulldog and it made me think that I feel I’ve seen Bulldog win a lot of 20 man battles royale, probably most notably the Albert Hall in London in late 1991 which was released on VHS.

I was wondering how his battle royale record stacked up against other wrestlers (for brevity’s sake you can stick to WWF/E) – I’m assuming the likes of Andre would have won more but I think Davey Boy Smith might be up there?

I may have gone a bit overboard in answering this question, as I scoured results in Cagematch and counted the battle royale wins for every wrestler to ever compete in the WWWF/WWF/WWE.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Gareth’s prediction is correct, and Andre the Giant has won more of the matches than anybody else in company history, with a grand total of 30 – yes, three-zero – wins under his amply-sized belt.

However, Davey Boy Smith is actually pretty far down the list of royale winners, coming in at ninth place and being tied with six other wrestlers.

The second place wrestler really surprised me, as it was none other than Kofi Kingston, with twenty career battle royale wins in WWE. I can say from reviewing the decades of records exactly how this happened, too. At various points in the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s, there was a house show trend in which ten to twenty midcard wrestlers would have a battle royale early on the card with the winner receiving a shot at the Intercontinental or United States Championship later in the evening. Kofi won quite a few of those over the years. This house show gimmick also counts for higher-than-expected numbers of battle royale wins for guys like Dolph Ziggler, Apollo Crews, and even Jason Jordan.

Also notable are Mickie James and Paul London, who racked up a ton of wins due to trends of house show battles royale for the women’s and cruiserweight divisions, respectively.

I was further surprised to see the number of women’s battles royale on cards in the 1960s and 1970s, which is why you see several wins for names that are relatively obscure now, like Vicki Williams and Kitty Adams.

And, because I went through and gathered all the data, I may as well publish all the data. Here are all the wrestlers who have ever won a battle royale in WWE along with the number of royales they’ve won.

Thirty: Andre the Giant

Twenty: Kofi Kingston

Thirteen: Kane, Edge, Big Show

Twelve: Mickie James

Eleven: Nikolai Volkoff, Paul London

Ten: The Iron Sheik

Nine: Blackjack Mulligan, Jim Duggan, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler

Eight: Christian Cage, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes

Seven: Junkyard Dog, Davey Boy Smith, Chris Benoit, John Cena, Mark Henry, Apollo Crews, Jason Jordan

Six: Big John Studd, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Zack Ryder, Wade Barrett

Five: Mr. Fuji, Don Muraco, Bam Bam Bigelow, Bret Hart, Triple H, Booker T, Rey Misterio Jr., Beth Phoenix, Great Khali, Alberto Del Rio

Four: Ivan Putski, Tonga Kid/Tama, Rocky Johnson, Barry Windham, Hercules, Roddy Piper, Johnny Nitro, Montel Vontavious Porter, Santino Marella, Natalya, Ezekiel Jackson, Drew McIntyre, Ted DiBiase Jr., Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan, Braun Strowman, Bianca Belair

Three: Vicki Williams, Tony Garea, Chief Jay Strongbow, Stan Hansen, Larry Zbyszko, Dominic DeNucci, Dino Bravo, Suzette Ferreira, Tony Atlas, Mike Rotundo, Jimmy Snuka, Hillbilly Jim, Ricky Steamboat, B. Brian Blair, Haku, Brutus Beefcake, Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, Ted DiBiase, Marty Jannetty , Undertaker, The Rock, Steve Austin, Sho Funaki, Kurt Angle, Viscera, Ken Kennedy, Matt Hardy, William Regal, Chris Jericho, Chris Masters, Mike the Miz, Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Alexander Rusev, Rob Van Dam, Antonio Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Big E Langston, Mojo Rawley, Asuka

Two: Haystacks Calhoun, Susan Green, Prof. Toru Tanaka, Bobby Duncum, Killer Kowalski, George Steele, Kitty Adams, Peter Maivia, Pete Doherty, Angelo Mosca, Mr. Saito, Bob Orton Jr., Afa, Terry Daniels, Antonio Inoki, Paul Orndorff, King Kong Bundy, Koko Ware, Bruno Sammartino, Jim Brunzell, Mr. Perfect, Brian Knobbs, Jerry Sags, Kerry Von Erich, Virgil, Road Warrior Hawk, Ric Flair, Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, Test, Bob Holly, Bradshaw, Faarooq, Tommy Dreamer, Brock Lesnar, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Jazz, Trish Stratus, Batista, Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy, Big Vito, Melina Perez, Bobby Lashley, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, Hornswoggle, Jack Swagger, Yoshi Tatsu, Eve Torres, David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, R-Truth, Nikki Bella, AJ Lee, Naomi, Bo Dallas, Bayley, Carmella, Ember Moon, AJ Styles, Candice LeRae, Bobby Roode, Nia Jax, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Kay Lee Ray, Omos, Jey Uso, LA Knight, Matt Riddle, Zoey Stark, Thea Hail, Lash Legend, Je’Von Evans

One: Kathleen Wimbley, Ethel Johnson, Ramona Isbell, Mitsu Arakawa, Rene Goulet, Tarzan Tyler, Sandy Parker, Moondog Mayne, Otto Von Heller, Bugsy McGraw, Leilani Kai, Terri Shane, Joyce Grable, Tor Kamata, Billy White Wolf, Ken Patera, Frank Monroe, Gorilla Monsoon, Stan Stasiak, Victor Rivera, Crusher Blackwell, Jerry Valiant, Johnny Valiant, Jimmy Valiant, Jesse Ventura, Salvatore Bellomo, Pat Patterson, Sgt. Slaughter, Sika, Samula, SD Jones, Dynamite Kid, Cousin Junior, Wendi Richter, Terry Funk, Corporal Kirchner, Scott McGhee, Jimmy Hart, Jim Neidhart, Bobby Heenan, Dick Slater, Paul Roma, Harley Race, One Man Gang, Lou Thesz, Bad News Brown, Rick Rude, Raymond Rougeau, Dusty Rhodes, Big Boss Man, Earthquake, Tugboat, Warlord, Sid Justice, Yokozuna, Crush, Rick Martel, Lex Luger, Ahmed Johnson, Goldust, Kurrgan, Ken Shamrock, Jerry Lawler, The Patriot, Brooklyn Brawler, Road Warrior Animal, Mankind, Chyna, D-Lo Brown, Vince McMahon, Crash Holly, Bill Dundee, Gail Kim, Eddie Guerrero, Goldberg, Lita, Psicosis, Candice Michelle, Sabu, Fit Finlay, Victoria, Kristal Marshall, Gene Snitsky, Eugene, Kenny Dykstra, Curt Hawkins, Shelton Benjamin, Brian Kendrick, Mike Knox, Vladimir Kozlov, Alicia Fox, Michael Tarver,
Ryback, Maryse, Alex Riley, JTG, Kaval, Luke Gallows, Tyler Reks, Brodus Clay, CM Punk, Kaitlyn, Dani, Adam Rose, Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella, Tamina Snuka, Big Cass, Enzo Amore, Aiden English, Simon Gotch, Scott Dawson, Paige, Tyler Breeze, Darren Young, Dan Matha, Velveteen Dream, Shayna Baszler, Vanessa Borne, Nikki Cross, Trent Seven, Raul Mendoza, Shinsuke Nakamura, Curtis Axel, Tucker Knight, Jesse Elaban, Keith Lee, Chad Gable, Stacey Ervin Jr., Jordan Devlin,
Roderick Strong, Mansoor, Humberto Carrillo, Ilja Dragunov, Lana, Erik, Ivar, Ronda Rousey, Madcap Moss, Tony D’Angelo, Josh Briggs, Ricochet, Rhea Ripley, Gigi Dolin, Jacy Jayne, Mustafa Ali, Luca Crusifino, Axiom, Malik Blade, Andre Chase, Duke Hudson, Bronson Reed, Arianna Grace, Raquel Rodriguez, Eddy Thorpe, Myles Borne, Tavion Heights, Iyo Sky, Wren Sinclair, Ridge Holland

Michael is well-rounded:

What wrestler do you think was the best on the mic, while being absolutely horrible in the ring and vice versa, horrible on the mic, but gold in the ring? My choices are Michael Hayes, gold on the mic, but a horrible wrestler, and for the second I’m torn between Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko and possibly even Owen Hart. First two just talked monotone and Owen was funny but was really a bad promo.

In terms of good promos who weren’t that great in the ring, Hayes is a solid choice that often comes up in this discussion. I would also throw out Kevin Nash, who did have great matches with people like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels but was pretty meh without an elite-level dance partner. Despite that, he was supremely charismatic and able to work the mic well. Another name that came to mind was Larry Sweeney, who cut some great promos in the vein of Roddy Piper or Bobby Heenan. That being said, he wasn’t an embarrassment in the ring, but he also could not quiet keep up with the other remembers of the Chikara or ROH rosters, the two companies he was most closely associated with.

Moving to the flip side of the discussion, i.e. great in-ring performers who couldn’t talk to save their life, the undisputed champion in my book is “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton. He was an well-respected hand between the ropes, but when it came to promos, let’s just say that there’s a good reason Jim Cornette was around. Brad Armstrong also falls into this category, though a lot of his friends have said in shoot interviews that he was hilarious behind the scenes but that his real life personality never could seem to translate to television.

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.