Hurt Business Beat Braun Strowman, Adam Pearce to Retain WWE Tag Team Titles

Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander successfully defended the Raw Tag Team Championships in an impromptu match against Braun Strowman and Adam Pearce.

Benjamin rolled Pearce into an inside cradle for the victory. Shane McMahon had demanded Strowman tag Pearce into the match while The Monster Among Men hit a running powerslam on Benjamin.   

What happened before the match overshadowed the match itself.

Strowman walked to the ring and claimed McMahon and Pearce conspired to keep him out of the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. To further underline his frustration, he said he was scheduled to compete in a tag team match and was unaware of who his partner would be.

That brought out McMahon and Pearce, with Shane-O-Mac explaining how Strowman's partner was "WWE management" because the former universal champion needs to get along better with his superiors.

McMahon went a step further and said he'd grant Strowman a shot at tag team gold.

Strowman suffered a knee injury in November that kept him out until the men's Royal Rumble match in January. His first singles match back wasn't until the Feb. 22 edition of Raw when he lost to Bobby Lashley in the main event.

As a result, Strowman's momentum has ground to a halt. His Universal Championship victory over Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 isn't even a year old but feels much longer ago than that.

It appears he's now destined to cross paths with McMahon at WrestleMania 37, a sign of how much has changed.