"The writers didn't know what to do with him" - John Cena Sr. on WWE's mishandling of former Universal Champion [Exclusive]

John Cena Sr. recently laid out some of the problems with the fundamentals of WWE's writing. He named a former Universal Champion as an example of the flawed system.

Cena Sr. was a guest on the latest edition of UnSKripted with Dr. Chris Featherstone. He answered a bunch of fan questions, including his thoughts on some of his son's WrestleMania matches. Cena Sr. also opened up on how WWE writers lost track of what wrestling is all about. He said:

"I think Vince listens to everybody. Remember, he does make the final decisions. But at the same time, I think they kind of lost track of what professional wrestling is all about. It's Darth Vader against Han Solo. And those stories somehow end abruptly."

Cena Sr. name-dropped Braun Strowman, who has been a victim of stop-start booking in recent years.

"I'll give you a good example. I thought Braun Strowman was the biggest thing to come down the pipe. They built him into the biggest, toughest, meanest giant in the world and they squashed him. He's gone. Why? 'Cause the writers didn't know what to do with him."

Braun Strowman's roller-coaster career in WWE so far

The story of Braun Strowman in WWE is a weird one. He started off in 2015 as part of The Wyatt Family, where he was instantly rejected by fans.

He quickly won them over as a solo star. Strowman gradually gained momentum, thanks in part to his ridiculous feats of strength on WWE RAW.

The #MonsterAmongMen @BraunStrowman shows NO MERCY as he PLANTS @JohnCena! #RAW #CenavsStrowman pic.twitter.com/ZXWdbRai07

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2017

He went on to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at No Mercy 2017 but did not pick up the victory. WWE should have pulled the trigger on The Monster Among Men right there and then. He was massively over with the audience at the time. But the company failed to capitalize on Strowman's popularity and ended up turning him heel.

Even then, he continued to lose big title matches and was seemingly finished as a main event star in WWE. However, Strowman did get to become Universal Champion at WrestleMania 36. He was a last-minute replacement for Roman Reigns and did not have any heat at the time.

As a result, The Monster Among Men did not have a highly successful reign with the title. He lost the Universal Championship to The Fiend at SummerSlam 2020, in time for Reigns to return and win it later.

Braun Strowman had recently been floundering for a while on WWE RAW until getting into a feud with Shane McMahon.

The STEEL CAGE returns to #WrestleMania!@BraunStrowman & @shanemcmahon will step inside the Steel Cage on Night 1️⃣ of @WrestleMania on Saturday, April 10.@peacockTV https://t.co/z14hEVUIoj

— WWE (@WWE) March 30, 2021

The two will face off at WrestleMania 37 in a Steel Cage Match, but the booking of the storyline has been poor. This is completely indicative of what John Cena Sr. said about the writing on the show.