Braun Strowman reveals how he made it in time for his WrestleMania match after the sudden change in plans
Braun Strowman finally won the top prize in WWE this year at WrestleMania 36. The Strowman Express had many opportunities to win the WWE Universal Championship in the past but wasn't able to convert those chances into a win. Many WWE fans were waiting for the company to pull the trigger on Braun Strowman and they weren't disappointed with the result at WrestleMania.
Braun Strowman at WrestleMania 36
Until a few weeks before WrestleMania 36, it was confirmed that Roman Reigns would challenge Goldberg for the Universal Championship. But COVID-19 played spoilsport and ruined WWE's scheduled match card.
Roman Reigns decided to not wrestle during the pandemic, leaving a void in the WrestleMania 36 match card. The Big Dog made a wise decision by choosing to pull himself out of WrestleMania. He is a two-time leukaemia survivor and is a father to newly-born twins.
The WWE decided to replace Roman Reigns with Braun Strowman at WrestleMania, and the rest is history. Strowman stepped in and beat Goldberg in just over two minutes to kickstart his first reign as Universal Champion in the WWE.
Braun Strowman was in an interview with Sports Illustrated hours before his match against Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules. During the interview, the Universal Champion spoke about the time the WWE called him and told him about the change in plans for WrestleMania.
Braun Strowman had no scheduled match to tape at WWE's Performance Center, so he made his way to Wisconsin to visit his family. Strowman said that he was twenty hours into his twenty-one-hour drive when he received the call from WWE.
“I was told, ‘There’s been a change, we need you,’I said, ‘Well, I’m in Wisconsin. How am I getting there?’ Almost before I finished saying that, I was told there was a jet in the air that was landing in a few hours for me. My uncle had just put beer butt chickens on the smoker. I had just enough time to wolf down some food. Then I headed to Florida to whip Bill Goldberg’s a$$. I was in bed by midnight in Orlando, then at nine the next morning I was at work being told that I was facing Goldberg at WrestleMania for the Universal Championship. All I could think was, ‘Let’s go.’"