Welcome once again to Tybo’s Talks! I am Tybo, and I’m sure by now you know that I am the ‘Five Star General’ of this operation we call SLTD Wrestling. I’m back with an all new series, and an all new banner! Which looks Too Sweet! so lets get into it…
There is no denying that Braun Strowman is one of the fasted rising stars in WWE right now. The ‘Monster Among Men’ has become the main giant in WWE and it’s easy to see why… or is it?
Braun Strowman (real name Adam Joseph Scherr) is a former strongman who has only actually been with WWE since 2013. This is not a long time at all when you think he has gone from a developmental contract to Number One Contender for the Universal Championship in less than four years. Couple this with the fact that he didn’t debut on Raw until 2015 as the newest member of The Wyatt Family as it’s easy to see just how quick the rise of Strowman has been.
Strowman’s beginnings were not what you would expect for someone who is having the dominating run he is currently on, before he was a Wyatt, Strowman was a rosebud. This is unfortunately not that shocking as many of the current roster and beyond have been one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds. Everyone from Becky Lynch, Simon Gotch, Alexa Bliss and Elias Sampson were all part of Adams Rose’s entourage.
Happily, this is a forgotten memory when it comes to Strowman’s career. Like Bray Wyatt being Husky Harris, or Kane being Izaac Yankem, or even Luke Gallows being Festus.
Strowman was dubbed ‘The Black Sheep’ of the Wyatt family, the monster was the right hand of Bray, and certainly looked the part. The country strong giant with his huge frame and huger beard was a perfect fit to add some much-needed freshening up of the Wyatt family.
Unfortunately, it was here that the illusion of the big man started to unfold. It was clear that Strowman was green in the ring, and that he should have really gone the route of almost all WWE talent these days, and worked out the kinks in an NXT ring. I am a huge Wyatt family fan, but even I thought in the beginning that Strowman was potentially hindering the faction far more than he was helping them.
So, what changed?
During the WWE Draft, Strowman was drafted to Raw, and the rest of the Wyatt family remained on Smackdown Live. This is where Strowman really came onto his own and stepped up his in-ring abilities. Strowman cut a fair bit of weight and started to decimate everyone he was put in the ring with and it was clear Vince McMahon was beginning to see dollar signs. Personally, I am not a fan of ‘enhancement’ (squash) matches. I think there are lazy and there is no story to them, but with Strowman demanding competition from the then Raw General Manager Mick Foley, you could see this was going to be the beginning of something special.
After a semi-successful feud with Sami Zayn, Strowman set his sights on a much larger prize, ‘The Big Dog’ himself Roman Reigns. It was here that everything changed and Strowman became a legitimate force on the Raw brand. It’s one thing taking out the then unknown James Ellsworth, and to some extent even Sami Zayn, but this was ‘The Man’, three-time WWE Champion, headlined Wrestlemania three years running, retired The Undertaker, Roman MF’ing Reigns.
Here is the unpopular opinion though, Strowman would not be where he is today without the ‘rub’ of Reigns. Don’t get me wrong, Braun got to the heights of facing Reigns with his own hard work, but Reigns has kept him there. If Strowman and Reigns faced off, and the chemistry was off or Strowman didn’t prove himself, or even Reigns just didn’t think he could hang with him. Brawn would have been busted down to the mid-cad faster than Big Show goes from face to heel.
There are some guys in WWE who are ‘protected’, if that’s the word you want to use, Cena, Lesnar, Reigns and even Charlotte (to a point). This means they will not enter a long-term feud with anyone that is not up to scratch. An example of this is, there is a long running rumor that the reason Vince McMahon soured so quickly on Dolph Ziggler was because when he entered a feud with John Cena, Ziggler couldn’t hang with the top guy in the company. Vince thought Ziggler was ‘making Cena look bad’ and ‘couldn’t keep up’. The Ziggler vs Cena feud was swiftly dissolved and Ziggler was never really given a fair chance after that. This is all word of mouth, but somewhat believable.
It’s safe to say that if at any point Vince wasn’t happy with Strowman’s performance against ‘The Big Dog’ the plug would have been pulled quicker Cory tells Saxton to shut up. As we all know this is not the case. Strowman is poised to be one of the fastest rising stars, and one of the biggest successes to come out of the most recent drafts.
The only thing that worries me about Strowman’s rapid rise to the top, (outside of it all being too much too soon) is his ‘monster’ gimmick. There is no denying that WWE have had a long running love affair with the big guy look. This dates back as long as WWE has been around, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Kane, Brock Lesnar to name a few.
Then there are the guys who fit the big guy mold of WWE but always seem to go from a monster to a joke in the space of a week. Mark Henry (Sexual Chocolate), Lord Tensi (Sweet T), Brotus Clay (Dancing Dinosaur), Visera (World Largest Love Machine) and Big Show (so many terrible gimmicks) all come to mind. As you can see it’s so easy for Vince and creative to lose interest with a superstar on the rise and completely change direction with them and they end up a joke stuck on the mid-card. I really hope this isn’t going to be the case with Strowman, but as you can see the ‘monster’ gimmick rides a knifes edge between total dominance and total joke.
It’s hard not to be impressed with this big, bearded behemoth, and it’s clear that Vince see the future in Strowman (weather that’s long or short-term future is anyone’s guess) but let’s hope Vince and creative are listening to the fans and whether Strowman is heel of face he remains the dominant monster we all love and Vince can use the Strowman template to build stronger big man stars in the future.
The Monster among men recently had a one on one match against maybe WWE’s biggest draw, Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. Although Braun didn’t walk out with the title or the victory this showed that WWE and Vince are 100% behind Strowman, and its only a matter of time before Strowman will be fighting off the competition as WWE Universal Champion.
Regardless of what happened at No Mercy, there is no denying that Braun Strowman is set to be a top guy and a main stay in the WWE, and he deserves it. Strowman has gone from one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds to one of the most dominate men in the whole of WWE in record time. His in-ring ability is amazing considering his size and he is solid on the mic, knowing his gimmick inside and out. It’s fair to say that Vince, Strowman and creative can all put this rise of a monster in the win column for WWE.
I hope you enjoyed reading and by all means comment below, or tweet me @Tybo_SLTD and let me know what you think about Strowman or indeed anything wrestling related.
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