Even WWE Can't Screw Up Braun Strowman's Road to the Universal Title...Right?
Now that Braun Strowman is holding the Money in the Bank briefcase, it seems as though he's finally on the right path to becoming a world champion.
After all, he's the biggest person on the roster, consistently dominant and has an ace up his sleeve that almost guarantees winning a title at any point in time he so chooses.
So why does it feel like instead of taking this as a certainty, being hopeful it will happen seems like it could just be wishful thinking?
TOP NEWS
Final WrestleMania 42 Predictions 🔮
WWE Rumors Roundup 👊
Punk Responds to Reigns, More Rumors 🤫
WWE couldn't possibly mess up such a sure thing, could it?
The sad truth is the officials calling the shots could do just that, as there are two major problems standing in the way of Strowman's ascent to the top.
The most obvious is Brock Lesnar, seeing as he's the person Strowman needs to beat to win the Universal Championship in the first place.
History has shown that the smart bet is always to assume The Beast Incarnate will come out on top of any exchange, no matter what the situation.
He ended The Undertaker's legendary WrestleMania winning streak in 2014, if not just to add another accolade to his resume. It isn't as though he needed that to legitimize him. Nor has he put anybody over but Goldberg since that point to make it worth setting him up so highly.
Lesnar has ransacked every person he's been in the ring with, including the few he's lost to like John Cena, Triple H and Goldberg, as well as other heavy-hitters like Samoa Joe.
Nobody seems to stand a chance against Lesnar's two moves of doom, as even Strowman himself has fallen victim to repetitive German suplexes and an F5 on multiple occasions.
The Monster Among Men failed to dethrone Lesnar at last year's SummerSlam and No Mercy and this year's Royal Rumble. While he didn't take the pin in two of those matches, he still didn't get the job done.
Even when it appears Lesnar has held the title long enough and needs to drop it before leaving to go to UFC, there's always a chance WWE either re-signs him to a new contract or opts to go with someone else taking the belt off him.
That is where the second problem comes into play, and his name is Roman Reigns.
Despite all logic pointing in the opposite direction, WWE continues to adamantly refuse to give up on this experiment with Reigns as the top of the food chain.
It's been criticized in every possible way for years, but the bottom line is no matter how many people boo or seem uninterested in him as a babyface who is perpetually in the main event, WWE simply does not listen.
That is why a No. 1 contender's match is being set up for Extreme Rules. It's a win that will go to Reigns in order to justify why he gets yet another shot at the title, even after losing at WrestleMania and the Greatest Royal Rumble.
That is also why there's been no halt in reminding the audience that in his cage match with Lesnar, the referee made a bad call and Reigns technically should have won.
It seems clear the intention is to have Reigns finally overcome Lesnar after so many failed attempts, with a victory parade at SummerSlam, even if the audience does nothing but boo and hiss the entire time instead of erupting with cheers.
Strowman has made no reservations about his impatience with the Money in the Bank briefcase, so it's doubtful he would sit back and allow the title to be in his vicinity at SummerSlam and not want to cash in.
It's also doubtful WWE would want to have Strowman take the spotlight away from the great triumph of The Big Dog's latest coronation, leaving the company at an impasse.
If Strowman cashes in at SummerSlam, he has to lose in order to keep the belt on Reigns or Lesnar.
If he doesn't cash in, we are expected to ignore the lack of logic in the impatient monster not wanting to get his hands on a title as soon as possible and simply wait until WWE considers it to be a better time to pull the trigger.
In the meantime, Strowman would either continue to feud with Kevin Owens or move on to face someone else—and hopefully not fall into the trap so many briefcase-holders have in the past, with the Money in the Bank briefcase becoming something of a curse.
For some reason, WWE frequently sees fit to make whoever is holding the briefcase go on a losing streak. Perhaps the writers feel the Money in the Bank negates all losses in the eyes of the fans.
It's a risk that hasn't paid off much in the past. Instead, that Superstar tends to just look weak before cashing in and winning their championship, starting their title reign with a lack of momentum that needs to be recovered as quickly as possible.
Worse than that is when Mr. Money in the Bank comes up short, becoming someone who merely continued their losing streak and failed to accomplish an impossibly easy task.
The longer Strowman goes without successfully cashing in his contract, the more he becomes susceptible to those pitfalls and WWE losing interest in making him the guy to put the belt on, particularly as we get closer to WrestleMania 35.
So how does WWE avoid making these mistakes and costing Strowman his world title run?
The answer is for WWE to simply believe in Strowman the way the audience is supposed to.
That briefcase is advertised as an omen for stardom, and WWE officials should let the natural course of events take place instead of getting in their own way with the same two problems that have plagued Raw's main event scene for years.
It's time to admit failure and go with the flow because it's significantly easier to ask for forgiveness from people you have wronged when you can simultaneously make them happy.
All those fans tired of seeing Lesnar hold the Universal Championship hostage will be glad to see the title given to someone who is there every week, particularly if he's booked to look strong and overtake The Beast Incarnate's spot as the unstoppable juggernaut.
Likewise, the ever-growing section of the audience tired of seeing Reigns be viewed as the one and only golden child will breathe a sigh of relief that the title isn't going to be saddled with him for the next series of months but someone who is cheered by the whole crowd.
Since the Extreme Rules match has already been announced, there are two ways WWE can go about setting up Strowman for success.
The easiest option is to have him insert himself into the match at SummerSlam to make it a Triple Threat and to book him to pin Lesnar straight up with no shenanigans that act as a cop out to make the champion look strong.
He's done enough and needs no more protection. By now, he needs to do the reverse and give all that momentum to someone else by putting them over instead of dodging it by having Strowman pin the other man.
Alternatively, if WWE doesn't want it to be a Triple Threat match, Strowman could challenge the winner of the No. 1 contender match to a fight on Monday Night Raw with the stipulation being that if he beats them, that person forfeits their title opportunity.
In either scenario, the other man would likely be Reigns, and bonus points could be obtained by having him play up his frustrations and finally turn heel, giving Strowman someone to feud with in September.
Beating Reigns as his first feud post-Lesnar would put the stamp on Strowman as the definitive Monster Among Men and allow him to move on past that point with vigor.
Anything short of putting Lesnar down in a legitimate fashion and bypassing Reigns will be a disservice to Strowman and ruin his Money in the Bank aspirations, all for the same lack of results WWE has been struggling with for years.
If fans become uninterested in the main event scene on Raw, WWE's creative team has nobody to blame but itself. The solution to all these problems is not only screaming at the writers in their faces, but it's also the exact person they anointed the next in line.
Are you hopeful Strowman will succeed and become universal champion, or do you fear it will all go off without a hitch? Tell us your predictions in the comments below!
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
