10 Times WWE Booking Failed Braun Strowman
Pains, trains and Patreon bills - how WWE fired well wide with their most recent "can't miss"
Maybe The Fiend does change people.
Bray Wyatt's clown-faced buffoon of an alter ego has taken a fair old pasting on this author's page in the past, but it sh*ts merch money as much as it does the bed, so for once the supposed lore of that stupid gimmick isn't going to be buried here.
Not entirely, anyway.
Fiend's attack on Braun Strowman in 2019 was infamously forgotten about and no-sold, despite the fact that the company were trying to use a Twitter-invented head canon that the monster had the ability to wreck the mental state of his rivals. Seth Rollins' heel turn, Finn Bálor's campaign of violence on NXT and Daniel Bryan's...haircut were all linked to their matches with Wyatt, but 'The Monster Among Men' mysteriously no-sold his assault and was dancing with The New Day before the year's end.
Pretty sh*tty, for sure, but it speaks to how badly mishandled Braun was at times that there could be ten more inclusions far more worthy of inclusion in a list like this than that pithy oversight.
Bray's still here, obviously. Strowman's been in the mere since 2020. Literally, considering where that feud went...
10. The 2020 Bray Wyatt Feud
BUT FIRST, let's talk about the mask stuff.
Fresh off what was presented as a career-saving victory for The Fiend, Bray Wyatt got back to focusing on what he'd lost shortly before setting his sights on 'The Champ'.
Wyatt's humiliating loss to Bill Goldberg in February 2020 felt like a billion years ago by April, such was the stasis of the global pandemic declared in March. The opportunity to continue his rehabilitation was right there, but WWE instead elected to have the character chase the gold all over again.
It was a disaster for Champion and Challenger alike.
Wyatt Family fans rejoiced at this reunion of former leader and servant, but neither man seemed to be working with clear direction. Wyatt was mid-morph between his Mr Rogers persona and the cult leader of old, while Strowman's cartoonish no-selling of the whole thing made him even less endearing than he'd been when taking potshots at recently-released stars on Instagram.
A miserable match followed, with the pair's glacial Money In The Bank brawl "climaxing" with Strowman pretending to be back in the fold before ripping away his old sheep mask and scoring an easy win. Wyatt was the last person in the building to see through the ruse and there wasn't a single f*cker in there.
And they weren't done there...