WWE WrestleMania 36 Results: Braun Strowman Saves His Career With Shocking Win Over Goldberg

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had to call a last-minute audible and insert Braun Strowman into the Universal Championship match against Goldberg at WrestleMania 36, and—big surprise here—”The Monster Among Men” quickly defeated the WCW icon to win his first world championship.

According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Roman Reigns was pulled from his scheduled title bout against Goldberg after informing WWE he “didn’t feel comfortable” wrestling due to COVID-19 and the fact that, as a cancer survivor, he’s immunocompromised. Reigns was reportedly upset about The Miz performing at the Performance Center despite being sick, which also played a role in his decision to remove himself from one of the biggest matches of his career. Reigns’ decision also paved the way for Strowman, who wasn’t schedule for a match on the show at all, to be chosen as Reigns’ replacement when there, quite frankly, weren’t very many other options on SmackDown.

Had Reigns vs. Goldberg taken place, the widespread expectation was that “The Big Dog” would emerge from the pay-per-view as Universal Champion, especially given that Goldberg wasn’t even initially slated to be at WrestleMania 36 in any capacity. The decision to have Goldberg beat “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at Super Showdown in February was a controversial one that was widely viewed to be a result both of WWE paying Goldberg a ton of money (might as well make him champion for that type of payday, right?) as well as Goldberg’s presence boosting SmackDown’s ratings. That unfortunately resulted in Goldberg beating Wyatt in shockingly quick fashion at Super Showdown, completely halting Wyatt’s momentum in the process.

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But just as Strowman’s match against Goldberg was a surprising audible, so too was his shocking victory.

Given that Strowman was a last-second replacement for Reigns, it appears that WWE no longer has plans to do Reigns vs. Goldberg in the near future. There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the immediate and long-term futures of WWE’s TV programming for Raw and SmackDown. While WWE has a temporary new home in Performance Center for the foreseeable future, it isn’t at all clear how that will affect WWE’s pay-per-view plans or its programming in general following WrestleMania 36. With all live events through April being cancelled, itmay very well be several months before WWE can hold traditional TV tapings in arenas filled with thousands of fans, so as a result, the entire creative direction of the company is in a holding pattern.

Strowman obviously wasn’t in WWE’s long-term Universal title plans, but given all the question marks regarding when Reigns will wrestle again—as well as the concerns about Goldberg being a long-term champion—WWE made the wise decision to have Strowman beat Goldberg to win the Universal title and potentially reignite the great Reigns vs. Strowman feud if and when things get back to normal. Indeed, WWE finally capitalized on a golden opportunity with Strowman, whose career has been defined by major letdown despite all the signs that he once had the makings of being WWE’s next big draw.

For whatever reason—whether it be his in-ring limitations, injury history or issues with backstage heat—WWE had never fully committed to Strowman, despite his undeniable popularity that ranks him among WWE’s most well-liked superstars. Strowman, however, had previously failed to win “the big one” literally every chance he’s gotten (and there have been plenty), including big losses to stars like Brock Lesnar at No Mercy 2017 and Crown Jewel 2018. WWE, of course, has a well-known habit of pushing part-time stars at the expense of its top full-timers, and no one has experienced that reality more often than Strowman.

Had Reigns not pulled out of WrestleMania, Strowman wouldn’t have even been on the card, which would have marked the fourth straight year that he was shortchanged at WWE’s flagship pay-per-view. But in one of the more shocking match outcomes in recent memory, Strowman won the Universal title in a match he wasn’t even supposed to be in.

And guess what? His career may have been saved in the process.