WWE: Braun Strowman is a wild card on the build to SummerSlam

WWE has virtually built up the card for SummerSlam in a single week, yet it’s still missing one of the company’s top stars.

All the title matches are practically filled. A variety of mid-card rivalries have already kicked off. It certainly seems like WWE has their build to SummerSlam all mapped out right about now.

One of the major parts that’s missing currently, however, is Braun Strowman’s role at SummerSlam.

Strowman has seen quite a bit of success on WWE programming lately, having recently taken down Bobby Lashley in a barn-burner of a match at Extreme Rules.

On the other hand, Strowman also just suffered his first high-profile loss in some time in a number 1 contender’s battle royal on Raw.

If you simply view that loss on the surface though, you don’t get the full picture. Braun Strowman felt like a star throughout that match, and even before the match.

When his name was announced in the rundown of competitors, Strowman received a sizable pop from the crowd. In the match itself, Strowman lived up to his “Monster Among Men” moniker by putting on the kind of dominating performances fans have come to expect from him in those kinds of situations.

Strowman was only eliminated from the battle royal after being essentially taken out by both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, 2 of the company’s biggest stars.

When you look at the overall picture, the entire match certainly seemed like it spotlighted Braun Strowman in a major way. Throw that together with his recent string of victories leading up to that battle royal, and it’s somewhat surprising that WWE hasn’t given him a major rivalry for SummerSlam immediately.

There’s still far more than enough time left to rectify that though. As I alluded to earlier, WWE built this SummerSlam card in what felt like almost record time, so there’s certainly an opportunity to slot Strowman in somewhere. The only question is where that somewhere actually is.

One option would be for WWE to use the end of the battle royal as a way to build to another rivalry between Strowman and Roman Reigns. Although those 2 have fought plenty enough in the past, they both are currently somewhat looking on the outside in for the SummerSlam card currently.

Strowman is so far without the title match I would suspect many were expecting him to receive, and Reigns’ feud with Shane McMahon seems to have been largely settled for the moment with Kevin Owens taking up the primary anti-authority role on SmackDown.

A feud between the 2 would almost certainly be a number 1 contender’s match in and of itself for either the WWE or Universal Championships, regardless of whether or not WWE explicitly stated it. For that alone, there might be reason to believe that there could be enough excitement surrounding another potential Reigns versus Strowman match to warrant a spot at SummerSlam.

At the same time, Reigns can certainly still find his own way onto SummerSlam via the Shane McMahon rivalry. All it would take is for Kevin Owens to lay out both Reigns and McMahon in the same segment for a clear set-up for a triple threat match to emerge.

With that being said, perhaps Strowman could appear in one of the developing world title pictures. Both Seth Rollins rematch with Brock Lesnar, and Kofi Kingston’s likely feud with Randy Orton could rather easily support an added superstar like Strowman.

He would arguably add an element of the unknown to those bouts that they might need given their likely predictable outcomes.

Similarly, the Intercontinental Championship picture is still fairly wide open. Everyone from Samoa  Joe and Ali to even Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt now arguably have a path to challenging for Shinsuke Nakamura’s newly won title. I certainly wouldn’t rule out a major multi-man match for the belt at SummerSlam, one which could easily include Strowman among it’s participants.

Either way, no matter if he’s in a world title picture or not, WWE has a wealth of options for Braun Strowman at SummerSlam. That makes him one of the superstar’s that fans ought to keep a close eye on in the coming weeks, as the build to SummerSlam continues.