Royce Keys Wins 2026 WWE Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal On SmackDown Before WrestleMania 42

WWE

Royce Keys has scored the win in tonight’s 2026 WWE Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the SmackDown before WrestleMania 42.

The full list of entrants was as follows:

Royce Keys – Joe Hendry – Aleister Black – Kit Wilson – Talla Tonga – Matt Cardona – Axiom – Nathan Frazer – Psycho Clown – Shiloh Hill – Ilja Dragunov – Shinsuke Nakamura – La Parka – El Grande Americano – Original El Grande Americano – Rey Fenix – Johnny Gargano – Apollo Crews – Joaquin Wilde – Cruz Del Toro – Otis – Akira Tozawa – Angel – Berto – Alex Shelley – Chris Sabin

The final four came down to Otis, Talla Tonga, Royce Keys and Talla Tonga.

Black was then eliminated by Keys before Tonga threw out Otis.

That led to a final two of Tonga and Keys, with Keys clotheslining Tonga out of the ring to score the win.

Keys made his WWE debut in the Royal Rumble earlier this year before working exclusively dark matches for next near-three months prior to his SmackDown debut last week with a win against Berto.

Does The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal Make New Stars

WWE makes a lot about the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal being a prestigious career kickstarter, but is that really the case?

Throughout the years, there have been winners of the Andre that fall into all categories – some who were big names to begin with, some who did become bigger stars, and some who won but never really kicked on further.

Names who fall into the first category of being already established prior to winning the Andre and it not really changing much for them include Big Show, Matt Hardy, Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley.

The names who stand out as having won but never really becoming bigger stars afterwards are Mojo Rawley and Madcap Moss.

And then the names who did have their stock and position in WWE elevated by winning the Andre include, to varying degrees, Cesaro, Baron Corbin, Jey Uso, Bronson Reed and Carmelo Hayes.

However, of those names, the only one who went on to become a true main eventer and World Heavyweight Champion – at least so far – was Jey Uso.

It’ll be interesting to see how Keys can progress going forward.

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• wwe
• Smackdown
• andre the giant
• andre the giant memorial battle royal
• Royce Keys

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