Analyzing where things went wrong for Braun Strowman
In the midst of WrestleMania season, one thing that has been overlooked lately is the fall of Braun Strowman. This time last year, Strowman was arguably the most over guy on the roster, but now he is just an afterthought. The question is where did WWE go wrong with him? While there have been many different answers, the correct one is Elimination Chamber 2018.
Up until Elimination Chamber last year, Strowman’s booking was fine. His only setback was losing to Brock Lesnar at No Mercy, but he recovered from that quickly. At the 2018 Royal Rumble, Lesnar pinned Kane, not Strowman to retain the Universal Championship, which protected Strowman. Then came the Elimination Chamber.
In the match, Strowman eliminated The Miz, Elias, John Cena, Finn Balor, and Seth Rollins before being eliminated by Roman Reigns. Strowman destroyed Reigns after the match, but that was the end of it. Instead of winning the match and facing Lesnar(and winning the title finally) at WrestleMania last year, or even winning the title in a Triple Threat with Reigns involved, Strowman went on to win the tag titles with Nicholas.
While that was met with laughter and some disappointment, the fans were still behind Strowman and he was still relevant. Strowman went on to win Money in the Bank a couple of months later, which was unnecessary since Strowman's character isn’t the type to need a briefcase to get a title match. Someone like The Miz was the perfect candidate to win the match last year, but instead, WWE went with Strowman. He then went on to turn heel and feud with the Shield, as the thwarted his cash-in attempt on Reigns the night after SummerSlam. Strowman turned back babyface a short time after, but was squashed by Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel in November and began feuding with Baron Corbin, which has really killed his momentum.
So, while a case can be made that winning the tag titles with a young boy or turning heel for no reason has killed Strowman’s momentum, if you look back at the past year, if he would have won the Elimination Chamber match or at least was added to the Reigns-Lesnar WrestleMania match, which many fans wanted. Strowman would most likely still be going strong today instead of having fans slowly turn on him due to his never-ending feud with Corbin.