WWE decided not to pull the trigger on a Braun Strowman Universal Championship run at Sunday night's No Mercy pay-per-view.
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What is the end goal of having Brock Lesnar retain the title, show up sporadically for the next few months and then drop it to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania like many assume will happen? Does that actually make Roman — who retired the Undertaker and just defeated John Cena clean — look any stronger? Will that somehow get the fans on his side?
More importantly, what does last night's loss do for Strowman? Sure, he was once again booked like a demi-God monster and could have believably beaten Lesnar clean, especially considering the Beast was captured mouthing, "that's a big son of a b****" after the match.
But instead of hot-shotting Strowman as its top monster heel, WWE decided to once again prolong his inevitable first title victory. Maybe it deserves a bigger stage than No Mercy. Perhaps the feud will be continued past last night's match.
Either way, it doesn't make sense as to why the company has been so hesitant in crowning Strowman as a main event champion. Lesnar's mystique won't be tarnished by losing to him, at least if it had happened prior to this match's outcome.
Strowman will still remain a dominant figure on RAW's brand, but he doesn't seem to have the faith that the company has placed in other "top-tier" superstars. After months of getting over and doing what was asked of him, Sunday night was the Monster Among Men's time and WWE decided to waste it.
Last year, when Strowman was bullying his way through local jobbers, it seemed as though this would have been a forced push. But by the time he was getting involved in feuds with the likes of Reigns and other main event superstars, fan support grew tremendously and Strowman seemed like a bonafide star.
It doesn't make sense to keep prolonging what should — and hopefully will — be inevitable. No Mercy was supposed to be Strowman's true ascension into top monster territory and WWE decided to waste it.
