10 WWE Wrestlers That Bumped The Best For Braun Strowman
The Monstered Men.
"Too little, too late" would be a slightly unfair assessment of exactly why Braun Strowman's Universal Title reign hasn't really connected as it might have three years earlier.
'The Monster Among Men' was thrust into the spot - a WrestleMania Championship match, no less - at virtually no notice back in April, thanks entirely to the ongoing global health crisis removing Roman Reigns from the 'Show Of Shows'. He squashed Bill Goldberg on the night, but a lack of fans due to the very same crisis couldn't inject a a very forced coronation with genuine euphoria or organic joy.
That same enthusiasm seems missing on the creative team too. Braun once blossomed as a promoter and fan's dream - the perfect blend of the size Vince McMahon would traditionally preserve and protect and a working style that was almost always a roaring good time.
The mutual magic seemed to subside as the years passed and the company failed to commit to an actual push for him any longer than a month at a time, and more's the pity. Many - Strowman included - bumped big to make it so...
10. James Ellsworth
The majority of this list will feature men giving their body to the Braun Strowman cause, but James Ellsworth was an early rule-proving exception for the 'Monster Among Men' - in getting pulverised by a new pushed prospect in 2016, he became one himself.
His inch-perfect "any man with two hands has a fighting chance" line before being slaughtered like all the other lambs was delivered with such conviction, whilst a look Natalya would later describe as mirroring a "chinless insect" endured long beyond the remainder of the milquetoast many that were fed to Strowman's 2016 megapush.
Putting across Strowman's incredible size and strength by being being so meek and malleable himself, Ellsworth was memorably flattened like a pancake after absorbing Braun's original reverse chokeslam finisher. Looking more in need of a spatula than a stretcher, he was sublime salesman for the original concept.
The move wasn't long for the world, but the unlucky loser was - kept mostly away from Raw in the aftermath, Ellsworth turned one night into a full year with the organisation before a 2018 release.