3 Reasons why AEW should sign Braun Strowman & 2 they shouldn't
Fans were surprised when Braun Strowman didn't show up at Impact Wrestling's marquee pay-per-view Bound For Glory this past weekend. He was fully expected to sign with the promotion and make his debut at the biggest show, but instead, there were two world title changes in minutes.
Dave Meltzer Has Reported today on The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there is speculation that Braun Strowman will debut for #ImpactWrestling at #BoundForGlory https://t.co/6yL9Tgpnd1
Josh Alexander defeated Christian Cage to become Impact World Champion, but Moose took the moment away from him by cashing in on his opportunity and winning the world title himself.
Braun Strowman to AEW is still a possibility, and he even spoke about it. Here is a devil's advocate piece looking at why AEW should and shouldn't sign Braun Strowman:
#3. Should sign Braun Strowman: AEW could fulfill the potential that WWE never did
This match between Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns at #SummerSlam 2017 for the #UniversalTitle is a criminally underrated match. https://t.co/PSOVkOcYAC
Some fans may not remember this, but Braun Strowman was arguably WWE's hottest star in 2017 and for a small part of 2018 as well. Once he set off on his singles run on RAW, it was a few months worth of squash matches that got him over with the crowd.
Despite Strowman being a monster heel, his bulldozing of smaller opponents every week was entertaining to watch and his popularity quickly rose.
Had WWE capitalized on how hot Braun Strowman had gotten in 2017, they likely would have had a top star in their hands, and he never would have been released in 2021.
Let's take the summer of 2017 for example. Braun Strowman found himself in the main event of SummerSlam, where he was a part of a Fatal-4-Way match for the Universal title -- also including Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and then-champion Brock Lesnar.
Braun Strowman stole the entire show with his performance. It was a breath of fresh air seeing Brock Lesnar manhandled the way he was, and the match was entirely built to set up Braun Strowman as the next Universal title contender post-SummerSlam.
It worked, and the build to the singles match between Strowman and Lesnar was fine as well. They even got a main event spot over John Cena vs Roman Reigns -- a decision that surprised fans.
Not only did the main event disappoint, but many felt it killed Braun Strowman's momentum when it was the perfect time for WWE to pull the trigger on him. He recovered in time for the build to WrestleMania 34, when he was once again in prime position to get the main event spot. He was sacrificed for Roman Reigns, and his momentum has never recovered since.
Ironically, he won the Universal title two years later in 2020, but that was solely due to Roman Reigns pulling out from his match against Goldberg. Not only that, but it felt like it was two years too late.
The point is that Braun Strowman proved to have massive star potential. If WWE couldn't capitalize on it, AEW certainly can.