Vince McMahon’s Early Impression On Ex-WWE Champion’s Role: “Why Is He Doing This?”
Ex-WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman details Vince McMahon’s early impression of him.
Braun Strowman signed with WWE in 2013. However, he made his WWE debut on Raw in August 2015 after SummerSlam. He never made a TV appearance on NXT before jumping to the main roster, largely because of Vince McMahon’s early impression of him.
Before Braun Strowman made his main roster debut, he was featured as one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds in a segment on WWE Raw. The moment Vince McMahon first spotted Braun Strowman on Raw, he knew he was cut out to be a big star on the main roster.
Braun Strowman Had a Great First Impression On Vince McMahon
Speaking in a new interview with 10,000 NOs, Braun Strowman, who left WWE in July 2025, revealed how the opportunity as one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds on WWE Raw landed him a spot on the main roster:
“I’ll give you an exact example of taking a little opportunity and making something out of it. When I was in developmental in NXT in Orlando, one, it was rough, I broke two ribs seven days into the business, then like 9 months later I ruptured my L5S1 that completely paralyzed my left leg. I had emergency surgery, I got 85% of it back. So my entire career I wrestle on TV, 10 years main roster I had 15% atrophy in my leg the whole time.”
“But talking about right place, right time, there was a guy at the time named Adam Rose and his gimmick was this party guy and he had this party bus and a group of motley crew, random people, in his entrance he’d come out with all these people dancing, he’d climb up on the ropes and then trust fall back into us.
“I was gifted the part of catching him and was wearing this Fisher Price Roman Spartan plastic outfit, and Vince saw me out there goofing and it was like ‘who the hell is that and why is he doing this?’”
“So I literally took this tiny goofy opportunity to do something on TV, and I showed out, made the most out of it, and it caught the boss’ attention, and he literally, at that time I had four wrestling matches in my entire life, he said ‘I see something in you, I know you don’t know what you’re doing, we’re gonna learn on the road’, and he debuted me the Monday Night Raw after SummerSlam, four matches in my entire career.”