YMMV / Braun Strowman

• Badass Decay:
  • After weeks of destroying Brock Lesnar, when they finally face-off at No Mercy 2017 he loses after six suplexes and one F-5. This is despite the fact that he walked away from an ambulance crash on his own power before that point.
  • By the start of 2019, it's basically become undeniable that WWE have somehow managed to bungle Strowman's run, despite him being considered almost impossible to screw up. His momentum has stalled due to being used largely as a fall guy to Reigns and Lesnar, he's been booked to look like an idiot (most notably when Baron Corbin tricked him into trashing Vince McMahon's limousine, causing Vince to pull him out of his match against Brock at the Rumble^note ironically, this was supposedly because Vince didn't want to damage Braun by having him lose to Brock again, oblivious to how badly he was damaging Braun anyway), and it took him a relatively long time to win any titles aside from his Tag Team Championship victory at WrestleMania 34, which most people consider more of a bad joke due to his choice of partner than anything else. He even jobbed out to Baron Corbin at one point.
  • His 2019-2020 run saw him zig-zagging like hell on this. His programme with Bobby Lashley, which culminated in him winning a Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules 2019, seemed to have finally given Strowman his mojo back. However, it was still a slow climb back to legitimacy, until he beat Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental Chapionship, finally breaking the curse of Braun failing to win singles title matches when it counted. This was then subverted for a while when Braun's IC Championship reign ended in an embarrassingly short time in a very underwhelming fashion (he challenged Sami Zayn, Cesaro and Shisuke Nakamura at the same time and lost the belt to Zayn), a sudden reversal of fortune saw him finally win the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36, defeating no less an opponent than Goldberg for it!
• Catharsis Factor: One of the reasons he's gotten over is his weekly destruction of the polarizing Roman Reigns during their feud in 2016 going into 2017.
• Draco in Leather Pants: He has been the recipient of significant cheers from the fans during his 2016–17 feud with Roman Reigns — mostly due to the fact that the fans absolutely despise Reigns — despite Reigns being, at worst, a tweener character, and Strowman being a borderline-murderous sadistic monster.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Largely due to his Rescued from the Scrappy Heap (see below), but especially due to invoking No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Roman Reigns more than once (culminating in the ambulance-flipping). And after the events of WrestleMania 34 and Greatest Royal Rumble, the WWE took notice of Strowman's popularity and might consider replacing Reigns as "The Guy" who is destined to defeat Lesnar for the Universal Title in the future.
  • Nicholas, his 10-year-old tag team partner at Wrestlemania 34 had crowds chanting for him on the night after Wrestlemania (no, seriously.)
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The tweed colored trousers with dark patches on the inner thighs. He looks like he's pissed himself.
• Growing the Beard: His split from The Wyatt Family and moving to Raw was the first step in establishing his true potential. His feud with Roman Reigns cemented him as the monster we know him as today.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • During an in-ring promo with Kurt Angle on the April 17, 2017 episode of Raw, Strowman^note To follow up on his actions a week earlier, where he tipped over with his bare hands an ambulance attempting to drive rival Roman Reigns to the hospital after severely injuring him following a series of sneak-attacks gloated over his actions and predicted that after they meet again in the ring, "It will be Roman Reigns's funeral" (i.e., that Strowman would brutally beat Reigns beyond the point of submission and that Reigns was no match for him). Just hours later, Reigns was indeed planning a funeral... in real life, for his brother Matthew Anoaʻi (aka Rosey, the "Super Hero In Training"), who died that same day.^note Reigns was not at WWE Raw that evening (although initially at least it was intended to be to help sell his "injury"), and the in-ring promo and angle advancement was planned prior to the Anoaʻi family making Matt's death known.
  • On the Raw fallout show to Hell in a Cell 2018, Strowman and Roman Reigns were discussing about Reigns's Universal Championship until Baron Corbin announced that a triple-threat match between Strowman, Reigns and Brock Lesnar would take place at a newly announced event known as Crown Jewel. Strowman, then a heel, dismissed the show, the city, the title and his opponents, saying all of them suck. Considering the outcome of Crown Jewel itself, which won the 2018 Gooker Award from WrestleCrap by quite the landslide, and not without reason, Strowman's words take a new, accidentally prophetic, meaning.
• I Knew It!: When Braun's big solo push started after the brand split in 2016, he began getting very positive reactions from critics and fans alike for being a really well-booked, good old-fashioned Wrestling Monster who looked completely unstoppable. However, this positive assessment almost always came tagged with the caveat "However, if he's just being built up to be fed to Roman Reigns, I'm going to be very annoyed." Perhaps unsurprisingly, when the two had their first singles PPV match at Fastlane 2017, Braun suffered his first ever pinfall loss at Roman's hands (admittedly only when he went to the top rope for a splash and missed), resulting in a lot of eye-rolling, deep resigned sighs, and (of course) massive boos for Reigns. However, after WrestleMania it was thoroughly subverted, as Fastlane ended up being the exactly one win Reigns got on Braun. Braun has beaten Reigns pillar to post no less than three times since, and hasn't been pinned by Roman since Fastlane. Many are now citing their feud as the best of 2017 so far.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Oh yes. Ever since the ambulance-flipping incident, fans on the internet have made a hobby out of coming up with impossible feats of strength for Braun to perform. Further cemented by Braun walking away from a literal car crash with only a limp and some cuts, and then surviving being put through a trash compactor. Ladies and gentlemen and others, Braun is unkillable.
  • Nicholas, his ten-year-old tag team partner from WrestleMania 34 also has this treatment (No, seriously. His tag team partner is ten-years-old).
• Memetic Mutation:
  • BRAAAAUUUUNNNNNNN!
  • Say it with us: I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!
  • GET THESE HANDS!
• Most Wonderful Sound: I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!
• Narm Charm: Obviously, it's not humanly possible to flip an ambulance with your bare hands, even if you're The Giant. Kayfabe-wise, though, it's still every bit a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Brock Lesnar momentarily shooting on him during Royal Rumble 2018 still makes the rounds on social media whenever his name is mentioned. It doesn't help that many fans blame the incident for helping to kill Strowman's aura as a tough guy.^note For context, Lesnar apparently became legitimately angry when Strowman delivered a stiff knee and legitimately punched Strowman a couple of times in retaliation, which left Strowman very dazed.
  • In real life, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Braun criticized indie wrestlers for setting up GoFundMes during this time because "they can't get a real job." However, millions of people lost their jobs during the pandemic besides indie wrestlers (even some having to get second jobs). Braun was heavily criticized on Twitter because of his comments. Braun didn't see the error of his ways until three weeks later when his real life best friends EC3 and Drake Maverick lost their jobs in the WWE due to the pandemic, the latter posting an emotional video of his firing. The fact that Braun would himself be released later on during the pandemic (reportedly due to his contract being too costly in comparison with his status on the card) and him and EC3 subsequently setting up "Control Your Narrative" just to have a job only made Braun look worse.
  • Related to the above, his involvement in the absolutely silly "Control Your Narrative" promotion during his release from WWE. Noone seemed to take the thing seriously except him and EC 3, and nobody was particularly surprised that the moment it appeared WWE were rehiring their released wrestlers (after Vince McMahon's "retirement"), Braun was among those who jumped at the chance to return.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: When he first debuted by being added to The Wyatt Family in place of the then-injured Erick Rowan, not many people were impressed with Strowman, considering him just another slow, uninspired big body who was simply there for his size and thus not a true fit amongst Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and even Rowan. It was to the point where when rumors came that Strowman was tapped to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32, massive fan backlash to the idea shot it down instantly—even amidst rumors that he had far more ability than was letting on. Then came the brand split, where he was separated from the family and drafted to Raw on his own. He shaved the sides of his head, got a new entrance theme, and started squashing fools left and right—during which he began to display some of that hidden ability people were hearing about. He soon became one of the more entertaining parts of Raw, to the point of winning a feud with Sami Zayn and being built up as an unstoppable monster even in front of Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, and Roman Reigns. He was not only big and strong, he was also quick, agile, menacing, and perhaps scariest of all, smart. Compare the reaction between him flattening Ambrose and Reigns in his debut vs. him attacking Reigns at the Royal Rumble and costing him the Universal Championship title. The first time was meet with bored silence and, at the end, the typical heel boos when Wyatt gloated. The second, Braun was being cheered like the biggest babyface in the building and "Thank you Strowman!" chants made it all the way to the next night on Raw. People who at first wanted him off their TVs were now declaring him their favorite wrestler—while this was half-facetious due to his target's Creator's Pet status, what with Reigns being booked so abysmally that pretty much anyone short of a child molester would probably get cheered against him, it really does show how far Braun Strowman has come as a welcome presence on the show, especially since Strowman at the time was still every inch a heel, without so much as anything even approaching a redeeming feature at any point in his entire career prior to his Mixed Match Challenge team-up with Alexa Bliss. It's gotten to the point were many fans actually wanted him to be the one to face the Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 (especially when, while both of them were looking for Reigns, Taker and Strowman ended up having a brief face-off) compared to the previous year when the rumors of him facing Taker at WrestleMania 32 were met with "Seriously?!".
• Rooting for the Empire: His post-WrestleMania 33 No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Roman Reigns backstage. Strowman's pre-existing Draco in Leather Pants status, combined with Reigns's sheer scrappy status (especially after being the one to retire The Undertaker^note Or so was thought at the time. The Undertaker reemerged in WrestleMania 34 to squash John Cena), made this a complete and utter given.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Let us reiterate. The man TIPPED OVER A FREAKING AMBULANCE. Then he topped this by tipping over a truck tractor.
  • There was also his match with the Big Show, which included a chain-wrestling sequence and Braun pulling a kip-up. By the end, the crowd was engaged in a MASSIVE "this is awesome" chant.
  • And then there was the time he literally walked away from a damn car wreck. ^note Reigns backed an ambulance with him in the back full-speed into a trailer with him inside. (And this was after an Ambulance match.) Once the fire department showed up to pry the door open with the Jaws of Life, he walked off under his own power.
  • At SummerSlam 2017, he power slammed Brock Lesnar through two announcer's tables and then dumped a third on top of him.
  • September 11, 2017 episode of Raw: No. Selling. Suplex. City.. The fans are chanting this very trope afterward.
    Strowman: [to Lesnar] I told you I'm not gonna go to Suplex City!
  • October 30, 2017 Raw. Eight days after being put in the back of a garbage truck and then being compacted, Braun shows signs of his impending return to the Miz and the Miztourage. Miz is scared shitless and tries to get the hell out of town before Braun comes back but as he's leaving, a garbage truck blocks the exit. Braun comes out of the back, Terminator-style, and proceeds to chase and destroy the three before decimating Curtis Axel.
    • Apparently from this interview, Braun was so committed to playing up the garbage truck spot, he decided to stay inside a garbage truck for an entire week, and he had to enter nine different garbage trucks to make it across the country to show up at that edition of Raw. While it's very likely that he made it up for the interview to protect Kayfabe, the fact he said that in an online interview deserves a spot here.
  • On the January 8th, 2018 Raw. Braun pulled the arena scaffolding ontop of Kane and Brock Lesnar after ambushing both men and putting them both through tables.
  • Elimination Chamber 2018: Braun practically tanks every single thing thrown at him: An AA, 2 Coup de Gras, a Blackout, several Spears, a Quadruple Shield Power Bomb with four guys piling on top of him, and was responsible for every single elimination except for his own when Roman Reigns pinned him, all of which was in a 7 man Elimination Chamber (normally it's 6).
  • July 1, 2019 Raw. Braun drove Bobby Lashley and himself through the LED wall, causing a big explosion, to the point Corey Graves' reaction was to say "Holy shit!", which was left UNCENSORED. ON LIVE TV. ON A PG SHOW. Let that sink in for a moment.
  • Beating Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36! Given what a last-second substitute he was for the absent Roman Reigns, almost nobody gave the much-mismanaged Braun a prayer of beating an opponent as protected as Goldberg, but in a short but brutal exchange of signature moves and finishers, Braun pinned Goldberg clean in the centre of the ring!
  • His 2021 out-of-nowhere release. WWE had been on a spree of sackings since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with the 2021 ones coming in a series of waves compared to 2020's single brutal slash-and-burn release, but when the June 2nd round hit, people were gobsmacked to see Braun's name on the list of cuts. Most of the other released talent were people who'd been underused or neglected, but Braun was a WWE home-grown bona-fide main-eventer and former Universal Champion who'd only just finished promoting WWE's return to live touring!^note The reason for it was because he'd been signed to a massive contract worth over a million dollars a year, and WWE was looking at serious cost-cutting which meant that only the biggest and most-prominent stars were safe.
• Signature Scene: Braun flipping the ambulance is most often pointed to as the moment where he catapulted himself from being an everyday Wrestling Monster to a super-popular Memetic Badass.