15 Biggest BURIALS Wrestlers Never Recovered From

7. Braun Strowman (By Brock Lesnar)

John Cena Wade Barrett
WWE.com

Brock Lesnar was an objective success story for WWE by just about every metric from the time he shockingly returned in 2012 until a particular hot spell with the WWE Championship following his snapping of The Undertaker's streak and demolishing John Cena at SummerSlam 2014. Unfortunately for the market leader, by 2017 the well had started to run dry, and unfortunately for audiences, Brock had the power to decide exactly how much he wanted to pass the torch in the way so many others had for him.

When it came to Braun Strowman, there wasn't a torch on earth that was gonna get those hands.

'The Monster Among Men' retooling had worked magnificently for Strowman after going solo on Raw in 2016; so much so that he basically won a longstanding feud with Roman Reigns in 2017 in order to look like the man that could hold the very top prize in WWE. A platonic ideal of a back-to-basics character loved by Vince McMahon and his disillusioned audience alike, Strowman was all the way over in such a fashion that could only really be derailed by a damaging defeat.

Here comes the pain.

In under 10 minutes of a No Mercy main event, the Champion outmuscled and outsmarted the Challenger with suplexes and submissions, and even when the gas tanks started to run on empty, it was Lesnar that stood taller as the true monster machine in WWE. It was a convincing win for Brock, which felt like missing the point of the Strowman project entirely until years passed and it was clear to see how much McMahon was prepared to bulldoze just to keep his 'Beast' sweet. 

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett