At one point in time, Braun Strowman was one of the most over wrestlers in WWE, both as a heel and as a babyface. He is one of the few big men in the business who have really had the “it” factor, although his booking at times has been very lacking.
For someone who is a former World Champion in WWE and has had major feuds against names like Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Big Show, Bray Wyatt, and several other huge stars, his WrestleMania track record has been alarmingly dismal. Even at the height of his popularity, WWE never really had any high profile plans for Strowman, which is a huge shame given how big of a star he could’ve been. For the most part, his WrestleMania matches have been a let down, though some admittedly have been better than others.
5 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, WrestleMania 35 Kickoff
Ever since its inception, the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal has progressively become less important and the quality of the match has severely decreased. By the time WrestleMania 35 rolled around, it was a major afterthought. Going in, Braun Strowman was the clear favorite, and the entire match had been booked around his showdown with celebrity cameos Michael Che and Colin Jost.
Everyone else in the match really didn’t matter, and the crowd showed very little care towards it too. There were some okay moments such as Braun Strowman and Luke Harper facing off, but this was rushed through to ensure that Strowman had a face off with the two celebs, with the sole purpose of this to create headlines. It was a very poor match overall, and Strowman’s win meant very little.
4 Braun Strowman & Nicholas Vs The Bar, WrestleMania 34
The actual in-ring wrestling between Braun Strowman, Sheamus, and Cesaro was fine but uninspiring, though that isn’t where the issues lay with this match. For weeks, fans had been promised a Raw Tag Team Title match with Strowman set to have a “mystery partner”. After a lot of debate, intrigue, and predictions, he simply just picked a child from the crowd (who was actually the son of referee John Cone), in what was a very underwhelming booking move.
Strowman essentially squashed The Bar single handedly, and it made the belts look like props. It was slightly interesting to see the youngest champion in WWE history get crowned, but the pair vacated the titles the next night, rendering the whole thing absolutely pointless.
3 Goldberg Vs Braun Strowman, WrestleMania 36 Night 1
Due to the effects of the pandemic, the scheduled match between Goldberg and Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship was canceled, and Braun Strowman was drafted in as an emergency replacement. By this point, Strowman’s momentum from being a hugely over act had depleted, but fans were welcome to a full-time star defeating a part-timer like Goldberg. Strowman’s victory was the only saving grace to what was a hard match to watch.
In terms of what Goldberg and Strowman did in the ring, they didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, but it was a finish fest with the pair repeatedly hitting their big moves. This match consisted of finisher and kick out, before Strowman finally put Goldberg away in just over two minutes. Goldberg matches had begun to feel very much like the same thing by this point, but at the very least it was short. On a show where there were no fans in attendance, WWE probably made the smart call to make this short, fast, and full of finishers to ensure that it didn’t become boring or have any awkward moments.
2 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, WrestleMania 33 Kickoff
To say that this was the best Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal that Braun Strowman was involved in isn’t saying much. It is only his second-best WrestleMania match by default, as all the aforementioned ones have been so bad. Going into WrestleMania 33, the build was very much about Braun Strowman and Big Show being the two favorites, which made it especially surprising when they were both eliminated within the first few minutes of the bout, making their inclusions feel pointless.
The rest of the match was fine. Tian Bing got a nice moment as the performance center recruit got a shock elimination over Tyler Breeze, and proceeded to have a decent back and forth with Dolph Ziggler. Sami Zayn received a noticeably good reaction in this match, though fans were annoyed when he got thrown out. The highlight of this match came at the end when Rob Gronkwoski helped his friend Mojo Rawley win the match, and the crowd responded with a big cheer at his cameo.
1 Braun Strowman Vs Shane McMahon, WrestleMania 37 Night 1
Braun Strowman’s best WrestleMania match to date is his most recent one. After an up and down year, he entered what was quite a poor feud with Shane McMahon, leading to a Steel Cage match that many fans weren’t overly excited for. However, this match exceeded expectations and was actually quite enjoyable.
For the first time in quite a long time, Strowman looked like an absolute monster here, with the highlights of this match seeing him rip the cage walls open to prevent McMahon from escaping, which was a great moment, in addition to him throwing McMahon from the top of cage all the way to the ring below. Overall, it was a simple match which did its job of making Strowman look very strong. It wasn’t a show stealer by any means, but it was a far sight better than anything else he has ever done at WrestleMania, though the competition this match faces isn’t especially impressive, as Strowman’s time at the biggest show of the year has been lacking.