Braun Strowman was not the expected number one contender WWE chose to compete against Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 36. When Roman Reigns decided to pull out of the match, the company called Strowman. In a few minutes, ‘The Monster Among Men’ destroyed Goldberg to become the new WWE Universal Champion.
Since his debut with WWE in 2013, the former Strongman has been a destructive force in the Wyatt Family, then on his own. He has also become a fan favourite, this giant man with a big heart the kid’s love, and the big hands adults love to see smashing opponents.
SteelChair Mag was offered this interview of Braun Strowman by WWE. We are more than happy to share it with you right now.
Can you describe the ‘crazy 24 hours’ leading up to WrestleMania 36?
“Without a doubt, it was the craziest 24 hours of my life. Everything started with the quarantine, and everyone was asked to stay at home and do everything they could to help control the spread of this virus. I figured I have some land in Wisconsin, I haven’t seen my family in ages, and I have 80 acres in the middle of nowhere. It’s like a town that’s barely incorporated. There’s like 400 people there in the whole town. So I was like, if I had to be locked down, I would be in the middle of nowhere, being the country boy that I am. I loaded up my belongings in my car and drove 21 hours to Wisconsin. I was one hour away to my property in Wisconsin, and I got a phone call from the Chairman of WWE saying, “Braun, we have some last-minute changes. There’s a couple of emergencies happening, we need you.” I said I was in Wisconsin and just drove 21 hours. He said, “We know, we’re sending a jet, it lands at 9 PM, you leave at 9.15 PM.” So I made it to Wisconsin long enough to have a quick dinner, make some chicken on my grill. I ate a nice quick dinner and headed to the little regional county airport in Waukesha in Wisconsin and jump on a 4-seat jet, which I am terrified of flying on by the way, because I can barely fit my large hairy self in there (laughs).
I was pretty impressed by the very fast jet. It was timely to get me there from Wisconsin back to Orlando, like an hour and thirty minutes or so. We were rocking and rolling, and I landed. With the time change, I landed at like midnight, got to bed at 1 AM, woke up the next day, headed to the PC. Like I say, long behold, I walked out as the new Universal Champion. It was crazy. It literally reminded me of the fact that you have to be on 24 hours a day because, with WWE, you never know. It’s one of those things that terrifies me, but I love it, at the same time, because it’s literally every day I got to work. I don’t know what I’m going to get to go or where I’m going to be. It makes things exciting. Kudos to our team for making it happen and get me back in Florida in such a rashly time. Not even that, they made me return back within a 24-hour period with minimal contact with human beings. I think I might have come in contact with maybe twelve people in a matter of 24 hours. Safety, security, everything was the utmost for looking up, for our well-being. Kudos to the company for getting me down and making it happen. Big thanks to Bill Goldberg for giving me the opportunity, trusting me to want to get in there, and getting these hands per se.”
What can we expect from Braun Strowman as Universal Champion?
“The biggest thing that I’ve said and I’m going to say again is that I’m bringing the title home to Friday nights. It’s going to be a resident there. It’s not going to be danced around when it’s felt like dancing or when it’s right or the timing’s right. I’m going to be a fighting champion, you guys know how I work, you know my work ethic. I want to perform, I want to go out there, and if I could work eight days a week, let’s do an extra day in a week, I’d do it because I’d love it. My time is short in being able to do this stuff. If you really look at it, like it’s not one of these jobs that you can do for 40 or 50 years, so I have to make the most out of it, of what I have right now while my body can do it. I want to give my fans, I want to give the WWE universe their money’s worth because I know these guys, I know what it costs to come to watch us, I know what it takes to come and watch us, and I want to make sure that my fans, our people, are getting their money’s worth because they come to watch us to be taken out of reality.
I really noticed that with WrestleMania this past weekend being there was zero audiences there. I’ve been lucky enough and fortunate enough to take place in the largest WrestleMania where I got to step in the ring with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to the small attendance WrestleMania where I defeated Goldberg for the Universal Championship. As crazy as it felt, wrestling Goldberg with no audience there, I knew what it was going to do digitally. I knew what it was going to do being streamed, and it literally it broke all world record. It was the most-streamed, most-viewed digital content of all time. As much as it was hard to digest not having an audience there, I knew that my fans were at home losing their minds because it’s something that I’ve wanted that they’ve wanted for so long. I’ve been so close to achieving so many times, and finally, I grabbed that damn brass ring, and I ripped it off the ceiling.”
What does the WWE Performance Center in Orlando mean to you?
“The Performance Center is home. Without the WWE Performance Center, the coaches, and the staff that was there, I would have never turned into ‘A Monster Among Men’. I would never have become Braun Strowman. I am the first class for being the WWE Performance Center when it opened in July of 2013. I am the first non-wrestler to come into the WWE Performance Center and make it out through the main roster. I am the first athlete to come into the Performance Center without a wrestling background to now hold the most prestigious title in SmackDown being the Universal Champion. If that doesn’t tell you what the WWE Performance Center has done for me, I don’t know what else to say and now with what we’re doing for our fans, with basically opening our doors through digital platform up to the entire world and letting you see basically the heartbeat of WWE because at the end of the day like that the talent is the bloodline and the heart of WWE.”
What did you think of the Boneyard and Firefly Funhouse matches at WrestleMania 36?
“They were cinematic pieces of art. It literally was sports entertainment at its pinnacle. It was mind-blowing, watching the cinematics, the choreographies, the fight scenes, just the whole presence of it all. It was just like, wow! I have goosebumps thinking about it right now driving in the car because it was awesome. When I watch wrestling, I don’t watch it as an analytical wrestler trying to break it down and nitpick everything. I watch wrestling like I did when I was a teenager or when I was a child. I watched it to be entertained and damn it entertained me.”
If you could have a similar match in a location outside the ring, who would you want it to be with?
“As much as I have hate for him, because he isn’t going to want to get these hands, he’s my mentor, he’s the man that made ‘The Monster Among Men’, that turned into the Fiend, the one and only Bray Wyatt. His mind, his ability, there’s nothing else like it, and one day, our paths will cross again and be prepared, it’s going to be a war.”
Tyson Fury and Drew McIntyre have been back and forth on Twitter recently about a future match. As someone who has faced both in the ring, who would you back as a winner?
“He had better learn how to do more than punch because he got lucky with the one he caught with me when I was standing outside the ropes. Drew McIntyre, like myself, are completely different trained animals than Tyson Fury’s ever stepped in the ring with the control circumstances, the boxing, and everything in between. He might be for a world of weighting, I’ve been hit with the Claymore kick probably more than anybody, and I know what he’s capable of. So the best of luck, if he wants to get in there and get his head kicked off, go ahead and give it a try and see what happens.”
The ‘Main Event’ recently launched on Netflix featuring numerous WWE Superstars – is Hollywood a future ambition for you?
“It is, but I’m not jumping ship anytime soon. I’ll take what I can do now. I’m very focused on my career as a WWE Superstar. I just recently last year re-signed four more years with the company, and that’s where 99.9% of my eggs are going in that basket for right now. Vince McMahon has given me an opportunity at life for myself, my family, my loved ones that I would have never ever even imagined being able to have, and I’m very grateful for that. I’ve told him, and I’ve told other execs in the company. This is my home, you guys made me, you gave me this life, and I want to show you that I’m appreciative of it and I’m thankful and then I’m going to return the favour for what you’ve done.”
Special thanks to DS Communication – All pics and videos courtesy of WWE