The REAL Reason Braun Strowman Is OUT Of Royal Rumble 2019
Injuries had nothing to do with Finn Balor taking Strowman's place.
Last night's WWE Raw brought a huge Royal Rumble 2019 change, as Braun Strowman was pulled from his Universal Title match with Brock Lesnar.
This came around when Strowman chased Baron Corbin into Vince McMahon's limousine following an earlier confrontation. 'The Monster Among Men' tore the door off to get at his foe, prompting Vince to fine him $100,000 then pull him from the Lesnar bout. Braun then did the most Braun thing imaginable by tipping the car in response.
Finn Balor took his place as number one contender after winning a four-way main event, but why was Braun removed from the bout?
The obvious kneejerk is that he's still suffering from the elbow injury that has kept him sidelined for the past few months. According to the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, however, this isn't the case.
Speaking on this morning's Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer claims that Vince McMahon originally wanted to have Lesnar go over Strowman at the Royal Rumble, before facing Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 35. As he's prone to doing, the Chairman changed his mind soon after, deciding that he didn't want to cool Braun off with another high-profile loss to the Universal Champion, so he picked Finn Balor as a replacement several weeks ago.
Meltzer goes on to suggest that the reason WWE persisted with the Lesnar/Strowman angle for so long is because they felt it would shift more tickets than the promise of Balor vs. Brock. Regardless, the original Universal Title match was never going to go ahead after McMahon had changed his mind.
No injuries, no conspiracy theories: just Vince being Vince.