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Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman got into a rather heated war of words at the top of this week's episode of RAW. Strowman followed Corbin all the way to the backstage area and seemingly lost him. It turned out that Corbin was hiding in a limousine. Braun Strowman wreaked destruction and havoc on the vehicle.
Unbeknownst to the Monster Among Men, the limousine actually belonged to his boss. Vince McMahon wasn't too happy to see his car become victim to Braun Strowman. And therefore he levied a huge fine on his largest WWE employee.
And that was not all. McMahon also made sure to cancel the Lesnar vs. Strowman match that was planned to take place at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
Let me jot down a list of reasons why this may have been done.
#5 Genuine health concerns
Braun Strowman has suffered many bumps and bruises along the way, in his road to the top of the current WWE roster. We know that he had an elbow injury even during his TLC match against Baron Corbin. It was believed that he had healed up since, but we know that to not be the case.
Last week, there was no physicality between Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar in the ring. This was attributed to the fact that Braun Strowman is still not at100% from his elbow injury and the surgery he had to undertake as a result. All of us at Sportskeeda wish him a very speedy recovery from injury.
But this essentially means that he would not have been able to face Brock Lesnar in a believable match at the Royal Rumble. And hence, the decision to replace him was taken.
#4 Far too many title shots
Braun Strowman is one of those men who should have been Universal Champion a very long time ago. For whatever reason, WWE decided to not put the title around his waist during all of those matches. Ironically while Strowman is booked as bulletproof otherwise, he never gets the big one.
And therefore, I wonder if WWE felt the need to freshen the field when it comes to the Universal Championship picture this week. The WWE Universe may have had their fill of encounters between Brock Lesnar and Strowman. And the need of the hour may be to have a fresh match.
Brock Lesnar has not been having classics with anyone at all, and chances are that even if Strowman was healthy the match would have been average at best. This is probably why cancelling Strowman vs. Lesnar isn't a big deal.
#3 Predictable outcome
There was no way that Braun Strowman was going to beat Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. Having protected Brock Lesnar for as long as they have, it wouldn't have made sense for WWE to book a title change at the Royal Rumble.
And therefore, we all knew the outcome for the Lesnar vs. Strowman match going into the said match. How many of us were genuinely excited at the prospect of such an encounter?
If you consider the fact that Seth Rollins vs. Lesnar has been rumoured to be the Universal Championship match at WrestleMania, which seems like a match with actual heat, Strowman vs. Lesnar does not seem like an exciting match at all. It would have been a very predictable affair.
Is it any wonder then that WWE didn't think twice about cancelling the title match?
#2 To protect Braun Strowman
Braun Strowman is almost guaranteed to be the Universal Champion someday soon. But like I've discussed on the previous page, it was probably not going to happen at the Royal Rumble. This would have essentially meant that Strowman would have suffered a loss at the hands of Brock Lesnar again.
Strowman has lost twice to Brock Lesnar already. He could not even get the job done inside Hell in a Cell against Roman Reigns, thanks to Brock Lesnar. Having him suffer a defeat at Brock Lesnar's hands would have completely killed the aura of Braun Strowman for good.
Therefore, I think that WWE wanted to preserve Braun Strowman's mystique by cancelling the match and have Strowman win on another occasion. By having him lose again, WWE would have killed his credibility forever.
#1 Last week's embarrassing segment
The first edition of RAW in 2019 was an action-packed affair. We saw the return of John Cena to RAW after months. We also saw the return of Hulk Hogan to television, to pay tribute to his good friend, Mean Gene Okerlund. Lesnar and Strowman made their official returns on the show as well.
Everyone anticipated a heated showdown between the two men. Much to the dismay of everyone involved, the segment was a dud. Braun Strowman was awkward on the microphone and Lesnar was just as bad, playing off The Monster.
This segment was almost universally panned by everyone watching in the arena and at home. The fact that the two men did not lock horns also made the segment extremely underwhelming.
After that debacle, WWE may have wanted to pull the plug on the title match.
