Braun Strowman has a date with The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. He will challenge for the Universal Championship at the inaugural PPV of 2019. This will be his third attempt against the Universal Champion to take the title away in a singles capacity. It will surely be one of the main events of the night.
The current scenario suggests that Braun Strowman is still not hundred percent fit to compete inside the ring. WWE creative wrote him off the TV after Survivor Series via an attack. Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, and Bobby Lashley laid a three-on-one assault on him to hurt his elbow. A surgery was mandatory to fix the problems.
So we did not see him in action at WWE TLC. The scheduled match for him was against Baron Corbin in a Tables, Ladder and Chairs match. The babyface superstars from WWE Raw helped him to win the match and earn the championship opportunity, thereby. We saw him sporting a sling on the shoulder suggesting he is yet to recover from the injury.
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So what could be his exact status at this point? Prior to TLC, WrestleVotes gave hints that we will not see Braun Strowman fighting at the PPV. The same source has now given updates about his status. As per them, Braun Strowman is ‘still not cleared’ to compete. He is not likely to compete until and unless the Universal Championship match.
WWE officials might be in concern with the elbow surgery that Braun Strowman had. They want him to protect fully considering that the Wrestlemania season will pick up as 2019 begins. They need the monster among men fully fit by that time. So they don’t want to take any risks about the health of the behemoth persona.
So it is not likely that we will see Braun Strowman competing until Royal Rumble. The sources also added that the contender for the Universal title is not allowed either to perform until the PPV arrives. In that case, there should be a minimum buildup for the title match at the Royal Rumble event. Brock Lesnar can’t take him to Suplex City until the match happens.
The beast incarnate will not appear on WWE Raw until the PPV buildups begin in the first week of January. But we should expect Braun Strowman in a non-wrestling capacity. He was also present at the Christmas taping of WWE Raw to have a confrontation with Paul Heyman. The airing of this episode might give more insider scoop about Strowman’s injury.
