7 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw: In Your Face (Sep 14)

4. Finally, Braun Is A Beast Again

Braun Strowman has struggled to project genuine menace in 2020.

It should be impossible to write such a sentence about such a big beefy boy, though 'The Monster Among Men' rarely feels like a danger or a threat these days. Part of this is likely down to him being tethered to Bray Wyatt's sh*te for the past few months. The wacky, cartoonish hokum he is pulling on SmackDown makes him look like a goofy caricature, not a real 'Monster,' and he doesn't suit it at all. Tangling with his former Wyatt Family ally has yielded some of wrestling's worst content this year and done Strowman no good whatsoever.

It was therefore refreshing to see Strowman looking so goddamn strong in Raw Underground last night, appearing like a badass for the first time in a long time.

Braun ruled the ropeless ring last night. After grunting his way into the building, Strowman trucked Dolph Ziggler and Riddick Moss, beat both up individually, then took them down together. He looked great here. Portraying him as a massive, brutish fighter with inhuman strength is a lot more effective than anything else WWE has done with him lately and while there's no way of telling if next week's fight with Dabba-Kato will deliver, biffing Ziggler and Moss across multiple segments was a good way to build to it.

This was comfortably the best Underground night to date, and a real step forward for Braun. Let's just keep him here instead of having him roll around in swamps.