13 Ups And 23 Downs For WWE In 2020
10. Braun’s Abysmal Year
You would think a year in which Braun Strowman won his first world championship – at WrestleMania, no less – and held it for five months would be a banner year for the superstar.
But 2020 was a horrible year for the Monster Among Men. After winning and losing the Intercontinental Championship to open the year, Strowman found himself in a weird spot: he didn’t have a scheduled WrestleMania 36 match, but was called upon when Roman Reigns couldn’t face Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship. Braun won an underwhelming match with no build to capture the title.
Winning the title in that manner was far from ideal, but if he was smartly booked as champ, he could have overcome that unusual start. However, Strowman was thrown into two ridiculous feuds with Bray Wyatt and the Miz (and John Morrison). Braun’s battles with Bray were especially bad, including a cinematic Swamp Fight that ended with the champion being drowned in the swamp.
Braun returned, but was a “changed” man. He would lost the Universal Championship to The Fiend, then lost a triple threat rematch involving Roman Reigns. Strowman would compete on Raw Underground (remember that debacle?) for a bit before being drafted to Raw, where he feuded aimlessly with Keith Lee, competed on Team Raw at Survivor Series, and then got suspended for grabbing a WWE official.
It was just an awful, awful year for Braun, as his aura has completely vanished and his big singles title run was a total dud.