10 WWE Matches That Changed Your Mind About Wrestlers You Hated
8. BRAUN STROWMAN Vs. Sami Zayn - RAW, January 2 2017
The Monster Among Men was a collateral victim of WWE's historic, hysterical treatment of "big men". We had reached a point at which the "bigger is better" approach had reached full parody. Daniel Bryan's "Yes!" chant was simply given to the Big Show on this thoroughly misguided basis and, shortly thereafter, the infiltration of the Indy darling into WWE proper seemed to represent the death knell of the hoss. The hardcore fandom was in direct opposition to Vince McMahon. He seemed so automatic in his small = bad assessment that we, in turn, equated big with plodding, unwanted, and irredeemable.
Strowman demolished these suspicions as handily as he demolished Sami Zayn in a total head-turner of a match that told about the only viable narrative it could - but did so in thrilling fashion. This was no one-man bumping highlight reel; Strowman was game in taking brutal kendo stick shots, and caught a rapid Zayn moonsault with jaw-dropping fluidity and power. Strowman was framed as an invincible Michael Myers figure, with supernatural powers of recovery - he no-sold a lunatic table bump - but did not stalk Zayn with a dull, lurching dread. This was an unprecedented Sabre-tooth Vs. Mouse battle in which Strowman's force of nature aura made farcical and redundant the plodding hoss of yore.
The narrative of the aftermath was telling; there were no accusations of a burial. Zayn wasn't drilled underground; Strowman was simply, brilliantly, over.