The impact of Braun Strowman on the WWE history of Powerhouses

The early beginnings

Really big man, so called Powerhouses, have been part of wrestling since day one. The whole industry was build around mountains of men fighting it out in the squared circle, back in the 40s. Right now, big man or powerhouses are more popular than in any era of modern wrestling over the last decade. A big part in this plays Braun Strowman. The monster among men. Why is that so? Let's find out! ![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZfVbc7YEk79T5tgZ2mk19kt5WmW355eL7h68858dnJeA/image.png) First we have to take at the history. At wrestlings highest peak in the 80s the industry was filled with huge men, stereotypically oiled, in flashy colors with crazy moves and personalities. The wrestling style compared to today is more slower and the moves are pretty basic - by todays standpoint. And everyone loved it. Over the time, the fan preferences shifted as they've seen a more technical and athletic side of the wrestlers. Smaller men came to success over the time. Back in the days, Shawn Michaels wasn't only the heart break kid - he was also the one who broke the barrier from the slower wrestling, to fast-pace-action, like in his ladder match versus Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X. Fans really started to love this style, but also keep their love for the traditional style of wrestling. But over the time, more and more technical wrestlers came to WWE and succeeded. Chris Jericho, The Hardy Boyz, Eddie Guerrero are all great examples. And they all co-existed in a time in which fans loved the badass attitude of a Steve Austin as much as the technical masterpieces of a Chris Benoit. But then the mid 2000s came around. WWE have basically eliminated or bought up all the big competition. WCW was history. As a fan, you now only had the weekly WWE program to fulfill your desire after wrestling. There weren't any alternatives. Or were they?

The indie revolution and fall of the Powerhouses

With the rise of the internet, indie wrestling started developing from a local entertainment, to a more national, if not global, entertainment. It didn't took long and most people now actually had an alternative to WWE. And at this programs they were confronted with a wrestling style that amazed most people. Intense matches at high speed combined with high flying action, close finishes and insane spots. It sure was entertaining, because it was something that was rare on WWE shows and if it happened it could only be performed by the best of the best. ![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQxKfn6sPDyYsvUhgPwj78cypL6dswrdQyRv7hmdkxHvq/image.png) Mr. McMahon - the self-proclaimed genius as he is - capitalized from this unused market and got some big names from the indie scene to WWE. With the likes of Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Claudio Castagnoli aka Cesaro and Tyler Black aka Seth Rollins, he created a wave of popularity in the modern times. People were amazed by this fresh style and quickly became aware of something else: The wrestling style of some legends, like Big Show or Kane, are sure cool to this, but amazed by this indie style of wrestling some people forgot what made "The world's largest athlete" relevant back in the days and only saw his slow speed and power-based moves. Those fans were only approved by WWE as there were points in time in 2013-2015, in which there were basically no fan-favorite big man employed in the company. The once loved giants from the attitude era have somehow lost their magic and were put in boring storylines.

The first debut of Braun Strowman

But then, 2015 came around. SummerSlam happened. The Wyatt family lost against Dean and Roman. Do you still remember this match? Me neither. Raw after SummerSlam: The Wyatt Family wanted revenge. But the sheperds favorite sheep mask wearing ginger Erick Rowan was no where to be found. A different sheep appeared - black masked. The debut of Braun Strowman - a rookie, who nobody really was familiar with. ![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNxckfXBZzvqcaNaKLAkv8pJhWHPDeprEnn54pmG9wTYL/image.png) The Wyatt family went on a more or less interesting journey to beat parts of the shield (supported by Jericho), lose to the 25th anniversary of the Undertaker and go full ECW to face the Dudleys and Tommy Dreamer in a (not so extreme) tables match. At least this was a pretty unique thing to experience. With leader of the family Wyatt getting injured later on, this was basically the whole journey of Strowman's period with the Wyatts. Probably it was watching his family member getting beat by The Rock in 6 seconds was a little to much to witness, so he didn't do much, although be stayed with the family until July.. "This was a pretty unsatisfying career for this poor man with the beard" is what a pessimist would have said at this point. Coincidentally it was exactly what I said at one point. But I didn't even know the half of what was still to come.

The reinvention of Braun Strowman

After a big wave of injuries and low ratings, the company decided to redo the brand split. With Braun Strowman drafted to Raw nobody knew what to expect. "Any man with two hands has a fighting chance", were the last words of a (now now so unknown anymore) local competitor (you know exactly who I'm talking about) just after we heard a menacing "BRAAAAUUN". A really angry Braun Strowman went down the entrance ramp. He seemed like a different person. He was portrayed like a one-man-wrecking-crew. He didn't need his scary master Bray anymore to scare anyone out. The pure appearance, which looked ready to tear literally everything in his way apart, is what got everyone interested in him. The following weeks he went on to destroy weak local man after weak local man. Going after Sami Zayn, who was desperate to beat Braun with his fighting spirit, was perfect for Strowman. Zayn stood no chance at all, but both men profited from this. Strowmans character wasn't deep, it wasn't all to clever. He was just the strongest, just the baddest and he really hates those weak luchadores. After the fans started to love him after his feud with Sami, we went after bigger and bigger dogs. By even defeating the biggest dog of them all (and you know, the big dog is on a hunt) it was just the best to eventually let him face the Universal Champion. He failed with that, but it's the beginning of 2018 and you know what? The new Strowman has been around for 1.5 years now. Are you bored of him? No? Can you name any bad feuds he had? No? Most of the fans really like Strowman and they look forward for his matches. His unique monster style combined with his moves and appearance easily makes him the best powerhouse of the last 10 years. Comparable wrestlers at there prime have experienced similar hypes but they never have been so long lasting and so powerful as they have been with Strowman. After a long period of not having any well-built powerhouses on the roster, Braun Strowman is the best that could have happened to all the Powerhouses nowadays. People started getting into Big Cass, Kane, Luke Harper. Because of good booking and entertaining ways to present those people, which I find really interesting if you think about what opinions people had after the infamous Batista run after his return. With this trend continuing, I'm sure we will have some great times with our big men in wrestling. In summary, all of this just shows me that Braun Strowman will continue having great storylines and matches (and I'm sure he will) if they continue to build him the way he is build up at the moment. And creative team has sure learned a lot on how to book and handle a powerhouse to the wants of the fans. Good storylines are an essential element to make a wrestler great. Applying a storyline that perfectly fits the positive attributes of a wrestler and shows off his best skills in the spotlight is even more amazing and exactly that has been the case for Braun Strowmans, which is why he changed the acceptance of powerhouse wrestlers in the main event scene for this generation. Thanks for reading! Feel free to tell me your opinion on this topic. ![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUrN1BooK52QC7pevdccvC9ean4qBLuvgFSgq73wh7Xwk/image.png) ---------------------------- All images courtesy of WWE and wwe.com