Braun Strowman may not have won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 this past Sunday, but that is not going to stop him as he continues to mark his path of destruction.
A loss in the battle royal, which most people favoured him to leave victorious, isn’t even a small step backwards for the Monster Among Men. That was made clear on Monday Night RAW when he became the first man to step up to Brock Lesnar after the Beast’s Universal Championship victory.
Let’s take a look at how his path could possibly lead to SummerSlam.
Toppling Roman Reigns
This is a difficult situation. Braun Strowman is clearly being positioned for a run at the Universal Championship but he has one obstacle in his path before he can take his shot at the title. Roman Reigns.
This is a self-imposed obstacle because Roman is surely happy to be done with Braun, who is small potatoes compared to The Undertaker, who Roman himself toppled at WrestleMania.
There hasn’t been a final resolution to their rivalry, however, as their last match ended inconclusively, and their only other singles match ended with Roman standing victorious over Strowman.
Braun has a demon to exorcise, and it may be a more difficult demon than even the Beast Incarnate himself.
Also read: 5 men who could defeat Braun Strowman
Roman Reigns just defeated The Undertaker. At WrestleMania. He beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania and, by the way it appears, he also retired The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
How the heck would you propose that Braun Strowman would possibly stand any chance at beating Roman Reigns after The Big Dog conquered such a massive foe? It seems impossible. Not even improbable, but rather impossible.
So what do you do? WWE backed themselves into a corner by not resolving the Reigns - Strowman beef before WrestleMania 33. There’s a massive gap in Braun Strowman’s timeline that WWE seems intent to resolve.
He backed off from a fight with Lesnar after clearly making a challenge, which came right after Brock made his own challenge to Reigns. It was like Strowman was saying that Brock had to wait to get his hands on Reigns until after Braun got to finish what he started.
That makes perfect sense in a world that didn’t just see Roman Reigns defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. But that did happen.
The best way to get over the hurdle is to have a match in which neither man wins or loses. Well, one of them would lose, but not by pinfall or submission. It would end by a count out with Strowman winning after Roman’s next foe attacks him and they fight out of the arena.
That way, Strowman wins, the void is mostly filled (it’s the closest you’re going to get) and Roman still looks strong.
The road to the Universal Title
Let’s be honest here; Braun Strowman isn’t going to be winning the Universal Championship anytime soon. Not at the next pay-per-view, not at SummerSlam – maybe never.
But he will be a top contender for the title this summer. In fact, he is probably going to be the big challenger that WWE rears up to feed to Lesnar at SummerSlam this year in Brooklyn.
On the way to SummerSlam, Braun is going to go back to running roughshod over the RAW roster.
He will have his final match with Roman Reigns later this month at Payback. After that, WWE might find themselves going back to the tried-and-true formula that gets Strowman riled up. Local talent.
The Abominable Strowman can spend a few weeks beating up 2 or 3 “local wrestlers” at a time until he gets upset at the new General Manager Kurt Angle and once again demands to be put in the ring with real competition, or else.
They can’t have Sami Zayn step up to him, but they have to find somebody credible enough, and big enough, but also expendable enough, to pose a challenge. I’d use Kane. The Big Red Machine is likely going to come back eventually for one final run, and why not use it to give Braun Strowman a solid victory?
He can defeat Kane once in a regular match and destroy him afterwards, leading to a second match with some sort of gimmick attached to it, putting the final nails into Kane’s coffin, and maybe even his career.
Heck, they could even do a casket match if they want to make the point really clear cut.
Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam
Finally, the summer is ready to come to a close. Strowman is done with Reigns and has dominated a feud with Kane. His challenge to Brock Lesnar is back on the table, and the score is to be settled in Brooklyn at the Biggest Party of the Summer.
Of course, there is no way that Strowman comes away from this match with a victory, but that’s not what all of this is about.
Brock Lesnar needs to become the Conqueror again. WWE is setting up Reigns vs. Lesnar in a rematch from their unsettled contest at WrestleMania 31, as well as a battle between the two men who have defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Before they can have that match, Brock has to get at least one big win under his belt. Braun Strowman will be the big win.
It won’t be in a match that goes the way any of the Goldberg matches went, nor will it be a total domination like his SummerSlam match with John Cena, but the point will be hammered home: Brock Lesnar is the Conqueror again, and he is unstoppable and not even the renewed unstoppable behemoth Braun Strowman can topple Lesnar.
It’s a bittersweet end of the road for Strowman, but an important one for him. He has a chance to be in the main event of one of WWE’s biggest events of the year against one of the men that WWE considers to be in the upper echelon of the talent roster.
Yeah, he’ll lose, but he’ll look damn good on his way up and he won’t suffer too badly by tasting defeat.
This will likely be the way that Braun Strowman’s career goes, even if this summer doesn’t end up panning out the way that I have laid it out. Strowman gets built up as a monster, Strowman gets taken down by the big star.
It’s a good way to ensure job security, and maybe even the odd World Title win, even if only for a short period of time. A man could do worse.
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