WWE General Discussion II

[Dr Positivity]

WTF?

[heatwillbeback]

Seems shocking given Braun was just involved in a world title program.

Aleister is less shocking but they have been building his return pretty extensively.

Riott led a stable.

Lana makes sense I guess with Rusev gone. She probably wanted out.

Pretty crazy list overall.

[Dr Positivity]

I can understand everything except Braun. Braun is WWE brand through and through. Vince should be paying Braun's salary just to not let him go to other brands like TNA and AEW and make them aesthetically seem larger than life like WWE. He just proved how much they need him on future WM cards without Undertaker, Goldberg, HHH, etc. I would have understood a Bray cut much more than this. I'll be interested to see if there's anything more to this story.

[heatwillbeback]

Reading Braun was likely cost saving measure since his contract was huge (1.2 million a year reported).

Which I guess makes sense if you don’t think he is providing that value. But he was involved in major storylines and angles and it’s just weird to pluck him out of it.

[Ruzious]

I can understand everything except Braun. Braun is WWE brand through and through. Vince should be paying Braun's salary just to not let him go to other brands like TNA and AEW and make them aesthetically seem larger than life like WWE. He just proved how much they need him on future WM cards without Undertaker, Goldberg, HHH, etc. I would have understood a Bray cut much more than this. I'll be interested to see if there's anything more to this story.

Completely agree - though I won't miss him as much as Black and even Ruby - who was so consistently good and grew on me in her time in WWE. AEW will have to be careful about signing too many ex-WWE stars, or people will say it's a place for WWE rejects. Braun might be better off going to Japan and following in the footsteps of people live Vader/Hansen/Brody.

[Ruzious]

Reading Braun was likely cost saving measure since his contract was huge (1.2 million a year reported).

Which I guess makes sense if you don’t think he is providing that value. But he was involved in major storylines and angles and it’s just weird to pluck him out of it.

1.2 million seems cheap for a major player in a company with the kind of revenues that WWE makes.

[WRau1]

Great news for Tommy End, now hopefully the news about his wife resigning wasn't true. They'd be perfect fits pretty much in every pro wrestling company.

[Dr Positivity]

I can understand everything except Braun. Braun is WWE brand through and through. Vince should be paying Braun's salary just to not let him go to other brands like TNA and AEW and make them aesthetically seem larger than life like WWE. He just proved how much they need him on future WM cards without Undertaker, Goldberg, HHH, etc. I would have understood a Bray cut much more than this. I'll be interested to see if there's anything more to this story.

Completely agree - though I won't miss him as much as Black and even Ruby - who was so consistently good and grew on me in her time in WWE. AEW will have to be careful about signing too many ex-WWE stars, or people will say it's a place for WWE rejects. Braun might be better off going to Japan and following in the footsteps of people live Vader/Hansen/Brody.

Yea I made a list in another thread and had something like

Braun - NJPW
Murphy - NJPW
Kalisto - NJPW
Andrade - AEW
IIconics - AEW
Lana - AEW
Riott - TNA
Black - TNA
Joe/Mickie - TNA

I wouldn't be crazy about going to AEW if I was Black with the "dark" stuff already overdone for years there. Being TNA's main champion might be a better call.

[Theo Ratliff]

I'm surprised at the Strowman release but at the same time I'm not. They botched his push a few years ago and he's never recovered. Every week on Raw he was getting over as a big monster. Destroying sets, cars and etc. But when it came time to put the belt on him and make him the face of the company. They sabotaged him. Especially when it came time for WrestleMania. Throwing him in pointless battle royals or pairing him with a kid to win the tag titles. Then when he was more over than Reigns. They killed all of his momentum and paired him with Ziggler/McIntyre, while reuniting the Shield.

[Dr Positivity]

I'm surprised at the Strowman release but at the same time I'm not. They botched his push a few years ago and he's never recovered. Every week on Raw he was getting over as a big monster. Destroying sets, cars and etc. But when it came time to put the belt on him and make him the face of the company. They sabotaged him. Especially when it came time for WrestleMania. Throwing him in pointless battle royals or pairing him with a kid to win the tag titles. Then when he was more over than Reigns. They killed all of his momentum and paired him with Ziggler/McIntyre, while reuniting the Shield.

When they gave him the belt last summer it wasn't that good although the increasingly cold The Fiend didn't help. I don't think holding off on making Braun champion was that bad of a decision.

Imo Braun's biggest failure was he never made it work as a heel after his first Reigns feud in 2017. He always reverts back to a babyface who gets pop by running people over outside the ring and saying catchphrases, which makes him annoying to book since there's only so many heels big enough to challenge him, whereas if he was hated as a heel he'd be great to book against underdogs. He has to have two of the most quickly aborted heel turns in recent history. He turned heel against Reigns when they had Hell in a Cell in 2018 and formed a new faction with Ziggler and McIntyre. I think he was face and feuding GM Corbin within like 2-3 months. Then last year I think was supposed to be a heel turn with The Fiend turning him evil and they basically bailed, took him off TV for a while and then brought him back for Raw Underground and the Shane feud.

[Texas Chuck]

He should have been trivially easy to book as a monster heel. You just need to do like they've always done for Lesner and let someone else handle the bulk of the promos.

I would have had a Miz led stable with Braun as the primary muscle. Would have elevated both of them and you could have added some workers with limited mic skills and had a terrific heel faction. Miz could have had several solid heel title runs with him playing the cowardly heel at times at others letting Braun soften up babyface challengers.

He wouldn't need (m)any title runs to have been as least as valuable as a guy like Kane. And if fans wanted to cheer him despite him technically being a heel that's not a problem either.

[iMoreland]

AEW would be fools if they didn't scoop up Braun as soon as they can. Easiest wrestler in the world to book and will sell tickets. The only thing that concerns me about him is the injury history, and the impact that could have long term because of his size. But he's pretty young still (37), can definitely get some good years out of him.

[The_Brecht]

Tommy End screams AEW

[WRau1]

Tommy End screams AEW

Agree. He'd be a fantastic pickup for them. Tommy End can do everything well and his "weakest" attribute was a smaller frame which he added 20lbs of muscle onto while in the WWE. Not to mention, he'll look a lot bigger next to AEW's smaller sized roster.

[tugs]

Just goes to show WWE's creative planning and trajectory are really bad. They can't commit long term unless they're fully focused (like Roman's). All that excitement from the vignettes and gets released lol

I bet they screwed up when they had him attack Big E

[tugs]

I'm surprised there's no news on the Forgotten Sons as Corbin's lackeys. Maybe they'll be reunited as a stable

[iMoreland]

Reasoning for releasing Braun per WOR: "Injuries, huge salary, and influx of new toys (Azeez, Omos, Shanky)"

[Stanford]

Reading Braun was likely cost saving measure since his contract was huge (1.2 million a year reported).

Which I guess makes sense if you don’t think he is providing that value. But he was involved in major storylines and angles and it’s just weird to pluck him out of it.

1.2 million seems cheap for a major player in a company with the kind of revenues that WWE makes.

I think that's pretty high in terms of guaranteed performer salary. Top 10 in the company I'd bet.

Braun doesn't seem like a wrestling lifer to me. I'd actually be surprised if he returned in a full time role. I don't feel so bad about these releases because performers today have so much opportunity to lay a foundation for post-WWE income. Performers have been using their real names (or at least names they own the rights to) on social media for years, I assume to make the transition smoother. Braun could probably make a good living just being an influencer. I have a feeling his instagram followers will find out exactly what brand of creatine he uses shortly.

[Ruzious]

No doubt that the exposure WWE has provided Braun gives him all kinds of opportunities to earn income in various other ways - with social media and I'm guessing movies are in his future - and of course ads for supplements. Maybe he can even snap into a Slim Jim.
According to Forbes, he makes 1.9 mil a year from the WWE. He can probably make that much outside of a wrestling contract. He'll be fine.

[daoneandonly]

I actually stopped watching WWE for months now, strictly an AEW guy. But shocked to see Braun and Aleister on here, and to some extent Lana, but moreso in that thought Vince would be too petty to let her go and possibly join her hubby