15 WWE Pushes That IMMEDIATELY Backfired
12. Braun Strowman (2020)
No, this isn't a text-based takedown of Braun Strowman's first major push in 2016. That was perfectly fine, and it helped usher in the return of 1980s-style squash matches to WWE television. Those weren't for everybody, but they worked for this kind of fan. 2020 was a different animal; Braun's push that year was sudden and flimsy.
Being fair, WWE needed a hasty contingency plan once Roman Reigns made it clear he wouldn’t be at WrestleMania 36 to work with Goldberg. So, Braun was put in that match instead, and he won the Universal Title from Bill. Cool, but the plan afterwards was to make Strowman a gentle giant who worked in comedic spots vs. The Miz and John Morrison. It was dire.
Tweaking Braun's presentation backfired on WWE, and it turned his title reign into a joke. Not a funny one either! It's depressing to realise that this prank-heavy pain persisted right through until his feud with Shane McMahon in 2021. WWE got some good use of that green gunge/goo they presumably bought by the truckload in 2020. They were determined to use some of it up as often as possible during Strowman's stinker of a revived push.
He'd become more of a nuisance to fans from 2018 onwards. Holding titles with 10 year olds at 'Mania, going the kid's morning TV show route with Miz and Morrison etc. Yeah, many of Braun's biggest "highs" were actually screaming lows masked as good clean fun for all the family.
The Universal belt went from Kevin Owens > Goldberg > Strowman. What a nosedive in quality.