WWE WrestleMania 34: It’s Braun Strowman’s Time

The speculation around this year’s WrestleMania is that the show is supposed to provide the stage for Roman Reigns to officially assume the throne as the face of the WWE.  If this is still the case, the emergence of Braun Strowman is being cast aside.  He, not Roman, has established himself as an arguably equal asset to the company and deserves his WrestleMania moment this year.

Bodyguards tend to come and go in professional wrestling.  Virgil is probably tarring a roof of a chicken coop in Idaho today.  Chris Jericho eventually decided that Ralphus was no longer needed after being such a valuable asset to his career (that choice is still being debated).  Reverend D-Von’s Deacon just vanished one day.

We send our love to Deacon (or was it “The” Deacon?  Like it matters….AM I RIGHT??!!??)  and hope he is doing alright.

When Braun Strowman debuted as the Wyatt Family’s iron fist in 2015, professional wrestling traditionalists could have made the assumption that he was just another big body in an industry that was becoming a smaller, more mobile man’s game.  Little did we know that Strowman would be booked as a walking amusement park that sent fans and opponents alike for a ride on a nightly basis.

This past year saw Strowman engulf the attention of the WWE audience like nobody else.  He dominated his opponents, with his only notable losses being at the hands of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.  During a lengthy feud that occasionally that tested WWE’s TV-PG rating, Strowman vanquished the latter of those two opponents to the point that it took the use of a renegade ambulance by Reigns to keep the “Monster Among Men” off his feet for any sort of extended time.

In the process of this feud, amidst the fans’ rejection of Reigns and a fumbled Shield reunion, Strowman became the unplanned, organic top babyface on Monday Night Raw (for this above the age of eight), and remains in that position to this day.  With WrestleMania around the corner, and with Strowman still waiting for that defining championship win, the timing could not be more appropriate for Strowman to cement himself as the standard bearer on Raw and defeat Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

One has to wonder, however, whether or not Vince McMahon agrees.

It has been long-since speculated that Roman Reigns has been primed to defeat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at this year’s WrestleMania.  It does not take a genius to realize that he is the intended face of the company, with last year’s career-defining win over The Undertaker being evidence of this.  Reigns is undoubtedly going to be a focal point in the WWE for years to come, but the company needs to realize that what may have been planned might not always be what is “best for business” (See WrestleMania 30).  Braun Strowman may not have been part of the laid plans, but his rapid and organic rise to the top cannot be denied, and not making WrestleMania’s Raw main event about him would be a refusal to strike while the iron is hot.

Next: The Top 10 Greatest Moments In Elimination Chamber History

Roman Reigns will remain a valued asset in the company, but the iron is not hot for him right now, with the failed Shield reunion proving this.  The fans are not overwhelmingly clamoring for Reigns, but they are for Braun Strowman.  The “Monster Among Men” has earned this spot, a spot he arguably was primed for last year.  If the WWE doesn’t pull the trigger on Strowman this year, it may be too late.