WWE Raw: It’s hard to get your hopes up for a Braun Strowman breakthrough

The Aug. 26 edition of WWE Raw was a key night for Braun Strowman, a superstar that is not only one-half of the Raw Tag Team Champions, but the next challenger for the Universal Championship at Clash of Champions.

Last night’s WWE Raw saw Braun Strowman receive a United States Championship match on the same night that his Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions with fellow Raw Tag Team Champion partner Seth Rollins became official.

Strowman has been eyeing Rollins’ Universal Championship lately despite the two dethroning Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson last week to become the Raw Tag Team Champions.

The Architect noticed and decided to open the door for Strowman to get a title match at Clash of Champions on the same night in which Strowman and Rollins will defend the tag team titles against Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler, who won a tag team turmoil match last night.

It was already determined that Strowman will compete in two matches at Clash of Champions, but the possibility was out there that he could compete in three matches due to his U.S. Championship opportunity in last night’s main event against AJ Styles.  Many were speculating that Strowman would actually win that title and head into Clash of Champions as a double champion along with Rollins.

And for a while, it looked like that would come to fruition.  The Monster Among Men looked like he was in control, but as soon as the ref got temporarily taken out of the picture, Styles went low and took down Strowman.  Not only that, but Gallows and Anderson came out and tried to take Strowman out as well, only to get taken out themselves thanks to Strowman and a steel chair.  However, that chair would end up doing more harm than good for The Monster Among Men.

Once the ref got back into the fold, all he saw was Strowman standing over Styles with a steel chair.  He told Strowman he heard the chair shots and wound up disqualifying him, which incensed Strowman.  He took out his frustrations on The O.C. as the show went off the air.  The stage is now set for Strowman’s Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions, but it feels difficult to get invested in this match for one major reason.

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Let’s be honest, the WWE has done a pretty awful job of making you buy into Strowman.  No matter how much Strowman does to get you excited as fans, you’ve learned to realize it ultimately won’t matter in the end.  Just think back to 2017 when Strowman was arguably the hottest superstar in the entire WWE and someone who was consistently must-see.

He was wreaking havoc on a near-weekly basis and creating a major buzz.  But every time Strowman got a Universal Championship opportunity, he failed to capture the title.  The WWE failed multiple times to capitalize on Strowman’s momentum and that trend has continued since 2017.  It finally looked like he was set to win the big one after capturing the Money in the Bank briefcase last year, but even that fizzled out.

The Monster Among Men announced his cash-in for a Hell in a Cell match with Roman Reigns and wouldn’t you know, Strowman didn’t walk out as Universal Champion thanks to the match abruptly ending thanks to interference by Brock Lesnar.  Logic wise, this made absolutely no sense, but it made even less sense to waste the Money in the Bank briefcase at Strowman’s expense.

All of these failed opportunities have made fans timid in believing in Strowman anymore, and that’s a shame.  This tendency of popular Superstars never getting the opportunity to win the big one has been used in other Superstars such as Bray Wyatt and Finn Balor over the years as well.  Don’t expect to see anything differently at Clash of Champions, especially considering Rollins has only had the Universal Championship back since SummerSlam.

Sometimes, no matter how great a superstar is, if the booking fails that superstar, there’s no coming back from it.  Hopefully, this isn’t the case for Strowman, but seeing Universal Championship match after Universal Championship match go to waste turns many fans off on believing Strowman can actually get the job done.  It’s almost inconceivable that he hasn’t won the big one yet, but that only further backs up the injustice that has been going on.

Very few Superstars have been as impactful as The Monster Among Men over the past couple of years, but he has still yet to win the Universal Championship and that’s an issue that could affect the rest of his career.