Braun Strowman Recalls Being “Speechless” After 2021 WWE Release
The 2021 WWE release of Braun Strowman was a major shock to the wrestling world, so now that Braun has returned “home” he has reflected on how he felt when he was let go by the company.
The return of Braun Strowman on the September 5th edition of Raw came amid rumors that he was in discussions to come back, but until somebody appears on screen, you never really know. Strowman’s return to WWE came 15 months after he was released by WWE in June 2021.
A lot of things have changed in WWE since Strowman’s release because Vince McMahon is no longer the Chairman & CEO, nor is he running WWE Creative. The man in charge of WWE Creative is the Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who made the call to bring Strowman back to the company.
Strowman appeared on WWE’s After The Bell podcast hosted by Corey Graves & Vic Joseph. Strowman talked about how his release was a bitter pill to swallow because he was active in the company during the pandemic era and doing the best he could to entertain the fans. However, Strowman said he knows it was just a business decision, but he was still left “speechless” by his release.
“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.”
Strowman’s first match in a WWE ring since his WWE return will take place this coming Friday on the September 23rd edition of Smackdown when he faces Otis.