Braun Strowman Is A Human And That's Bad News For Roman Reigns

I recently read an article on the wonderful Cageside Seats detailing how recent WWE events have proven Braun Strowman is the new guy in WWE. While goings on at this year's Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, WrestleMania and Greatest Royal Rumble certainly cannot be ignored, there's been a subtle change in the Monster Among Men's makeup that I believe to be more important than anything he's done between the ropes in recent times.

I'd like to kick things off by clarifying that the supposed 'Roman Reigns experiment' ended a long old time ago. This article isn't signifying the end of The Big Dog's time as one of the top guys in WWE - he's more than proven over the past couple of years when he's booked correctly he belongs in the upper echelons of any WWE card.

Roman isn't going anywhere - he kicked out of more F-5s during that Cage Match with Brock Lesnar than Titus O'Neil has had memes dedicated to his magnificent slip over the past few days. However, goings on over the past few months have led me to believe the three-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion's position as Vince McMahon's proverbial booker's pet has been usurped by a massive bloody monster.

Looking at Braun Strowman in his role as a monster is where we must start. Like Jose Mourinho said way back in 2004 upon his arrival at Chelsea, in terms of WWE's big, sweaty lads, Braun is 'not one of the bottle, he is a special one.'

WWE have done a wonderful job of humanising Strowman over the past year or so. They've done something they haven't really done since like EVER, in cooking a Superstar in one of those slow cooking devices - they've taken their time. It's been gradual, and I think necessary because if they would have changed Braun to what he is today from what he was a while ago suddenly I think our brains would have melted due to the sheer amount of information there was to compute.

Gone are the days where it was all about 'BRAUN SEE! BRAUN SMASH ROOOOAR!' - why did he hate vehicles so much btw? - and in are the days of a big friendly giant who hasn't lost the ability to kill all we know about life itself. Normally in WWE land when a massive destroyer like Braun starts to act more like a human, they turn soft and loose that killer edge. The Big Show, Kane and The Great PISSING Khali have all fallen to the same fate during their illustrious careers.



It all started with 'get these hands' and other short outbursts that proved he could speak real, functioning English. We then saw another side to him while teaming with Alexa Bliss in the MMC and the will-she-won't-she GET THAT D... hands. You know what I mean - I know Kane went through something similar with Tori back in the day but this one was dealt with a great deal more awareness of how preposterous it really looked. It's good that WWE are aware with certain things, isn't it?

This humanising of a thing people were too scared to stand next to once upon a time is more significant than it seems - to me at least. I believe a lack of human qualities, as naff as that sounds out of context, was the reason for The Undertaker continually being the other guy at the top of WWE's roster. Look back at history and any era of The Deadman and you will see there was always at least one supposed 'company guy' alongside him to take care of the extracurricular stuff. How on earth could you have a member of the walking dead as your face of the company? How could that man take care of press duties and appear on big shows presented by people who don't understand professional wrestling without ridicule? Yes, Regis and Kathy-Lee, I'm looking at you, you numpties!

Today, with Braun Strowman you're getting all of the madness that an Undertaker would bring, with the added human qualities that mean he can go out and speak to members of the press like a member of the public would. It's the best of both worlds and a tweak that signifies McMahon sees big, sweaty Braun more than just a generator of countless memes - territory he looked to be stuck in towards the end of last year.

Take yourself back a year and picture Braun picking up a child from a WWE crowd and dragging him into the ring like the caring, noble Harambe would in his prime - it's unfathomable. He would have eaten the damn kid like a ham - get these hams, innit?! - back then!



I'm writing this article now because Braun's victory in the Greatest Royal Rumble is the latest in a long line of happenings that signifies he's now the chosen one in WWE. Following the defeat to Brock Lesnar at No Mercy last year, he's been booked stronger than any man, woman or child in the company - and that's some going when you consider a certain Big Dog can kick out of five Lesnar F-5s, while the former Wyatt Family man and Samoa Joe couldn't even survive one in their respective bouts with The Beast.

I know you're all probably thinking about the conclusion of WrestleMania 34 and how despite losing badly, and bleeding his own blood like very few have bled their own blood before, the camera was fixated on Roman Reigns and his music played as he valiantly made his way up the ramp to close the show. Again, I must reiterate, Roman's time at the top isn't over. He's going to be a focal point of WWE for years to come. I just think the journey that Braun has been on compared to Roman in recent times - both in character terms and inside the ring - shows The Big Dog is going to be joined by a bigger dog in the dog pound... aye.

It's going to be interesting to see how Braun's character develops in the months to come. Following the Rumble, he has no defined rival and is now aligned with Reigns for some reason - Strowman tried to quite literally murder the D-O-G of a large variety numerous times during their lengthy feud last year, remember? In this new tandem- if you can really call it that - will Strowman be used to get a few more favourable eyes on Vince's old guy - or will the newfound goodwill between both men be used to cement Braun's position as a Superstar on, or above, Reigns' level?

There's one thing for sure - we're going to be seeing Braun Strowman on more talk shows in the months and years to come and I can't wait. He's a fascinating human being.