Former WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman has reflected on his “disheartening” release from WWE in the summer of 2021.
Braun Strowman recently made a huge return to WWE after 15 months away from the company. The Monster Among Men was shockingly released by the company in June 2021 amid ongoing budget cuts.
Following the change in management at the top of WWE, Strowman has become one of several stars to make their return in recent weeks.
Speaking on After The Bell, Braun Strowman discussed his release and explains why it was a bitter pill to swallow after the work he had put in during the dark days of the pandemic when not everybody could get to work and those that did had to compete in empty arenas:
“You know, it was a really, really hard pill to swallow, probably one of the biggest pills I’ve ever had to swallow in life and a reality check. You know, it was disheartening to say the least, you know, stepping up through or at the beginning of the pandemic when other people couldn’t come to work and people didn’t come to work.”
“Not knowing what’s going on in the world and strapping this company to my back and going out there week in and week out doing everything in my power to get a quality product out so I can take the fans and the people around the world mind off the crazy stuff that was going on.”
“And I’m proud of those times when through the pandemic, not only myself, all the boys and girls, everybody in the back, you guys, everybody that’s a part of that. We were the only entity in the entire world that was getting content out other than playing reruns. So we were the only people in the world that were giving people the opportunity to escape reality by sitting down, whether I took you on an emotional journey for three seconds, or the whole three hours I was on Monday Night Raw. That was your chance to escape from reality and I’m really, really proud of that.”
“But then coming to how business ended and things like that. And like I said, it’s always business. I have no hard feelings, business is business, but knowing that I kind of stepped up and did that and then had the feeling of well, I was just a stray dog and all of a sudden I was just kicked off the porch, it was a little hard pill to swallow and kind of like the same thing like I spoke on earlier. What didn’t I do? What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? All those doubts that you start to play into yourself.”
“Because literally, it’s a cold call out of nowhere. I was making breakfast at nine o’clock in the morning and got the phone call. ‘Hey, sorry, we have bad news due to budget cuts we’re initiating 90 days and then your contracts will be terminated.’ I was just speechless. I think all I said was thank you and I just hung up the phone. And I just was like, literally what the f*ck? Yeah. And it was this. It definitely sent me to a bad place for a little bit. But I know that everything in life happens for a reason and everything is a test.”
Braun Strowman will compete in his first WWE match in sixteen months when he takes on a former Raw Tag Team Champion on an upcoming edition of SmackDown.
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