Last year Cesaro had his Wrestlemania moment as he impressively lifted Big Show and dumped him over the top rope to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The Cesaro section erupted and the entire stadium joined in their elation as we believed that the wrestling gods had answered our prayers, turned Cesaro face and begun his main-event push to the top of the WWE tree.

In hindsight though, we saw that the unexpected victory didn’t really materialise and as a result the trophy’s prestige was dented. It is safe to say then that the memorial battle had a shaky debut. But just as Cesaro dusted himself off and re-built his WWE run, the ARMBAR (as it is commonly known), could have done the same at Wrestlemania 31.

Enhanced by #AxelMania, the friction between Miz and Mizdow and an NXT tournament to win a place in the match (SPOILERS: Hideo Itami won), the build had actually been rather decent for this year’s bout; I for one was excited to see how the bout would unravel with shenanigans sure to ensue.

However, as we were informed on Wrestlemania Today, the battle royal has now sadly been demoted to the preshow and will not feature on the main portion of the 4 hour spectacular. Due to this decision the legacy of the supposedly esteemed trophy has been further crushed and whether the match will appear on future Wrestlemanias is now questionable.

Many Mania viewers probably won’t end up even seeing this preshow match now and the reason for it being cut is likely to give extra time to other portions of the showcase; entrances from Taker, Bray, Sting and HHH and the live performance by Kid Ink will probably take up around 40 minutes all in. Extra time may also be available to the Divas match too though, meaning they could construct a solid match, so I guess it isn’t all bad.

So with the Andre Battle Royal being demoted in favour of other bouts it is clear that this trophy unfortunately means far less that the WWE would like us to believe and the contest appears to simply be a way to get a majority of the roster a Wrestlemania payday. I hope that the match can recover from this as something gracing the name of a legend shouldn’t be treated so poorly, but it will be a difficult climb to regain prestige for this prize.