Braun Strowman Cashes In On Roman Reigns, But The Shield Stops Him

On tonight’s episode of WWE Raw, Braun Strowman did indeed cash in his Money in the Bank contract during the show’s main event. But instead of coming away with Roman Reigns’s Universal Championship, he ended up being slammed into the announce table by Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose.

Ever since last year’s Superstar Shakeup, all three members of The Shield have been on WWE Raw, but a recent triceps injury to Dean Ambrose prevented the trio from operating as a unit. The week before SummerSlam, Ambrose returned to help Seth Rollins end Dolph Ziggler’s Intercontinental Championship reign, as Rollins couldn’t overcome both Ziggler and Drew McIntyre on his own.

However, Ambrose didn’t just come back to help Rollins. Both he and Rollins helped Roman Reigns turn aside a Money in the Bank cash-in attempt from Braun Strowman tonight. Strowman had already teased a cash in during the main event of SummerSlam, but Brock Lesnar stopped him before Reigns swooped in to conquer “The Beast Incarnate”.

Tonight on Raw, Reigns defended the Universal Title in the main event against Finn Balor, producing yet another “Instant Classic”. Balor squashed Baron Corbin as “The Demon” at SummerSlam, and while he didn’t show up as his alter ego tonight, he gave Reigns quite the fight before succumbing to a spear (Reigns countered a Coup de Grace just moments earlier).

That match between Reigns and Balor was absolutely insane and had the crowd on the edge of their seats throughout, especially at the end. But what followed next turned the insanity levels up several notches.

Strowman emerged to cash in on Reigns, and it seemed like he would be successful before Ambrose and Rollins entered. While Braun tried to beat up Reigns for the title, Rollins and Ambrose stepped in, eventually helping Roman triple-powerbomb Strowman through an announce table.

Reigns and Strowman had a tremendous 2017 rivalry, and they were meant to feud over the Universal Title. It’s unclear if Strowman just lost his briefcase, making it the second year in a row in which we’ve seen a failed cash-in attempt on the men’s side, but it is clear that these two are on a collision course that should last months.

Words can hardly describe how exciting tonight’s show-closing angle was, as Raw more than followed up the momentum generated by an excellent SummerSlam show.