WWE Raw is suffering from the absence of a few marquee superstars, for now. Braun Strowman is the one name who is not present on the scene due to a shattered elbow. He was originally going to be the flag-bearer of the red brand after Roman Reigns’ diagnosis with Leukemia. WWE considered him as the new prime babyface to replace the Big Dog. So his injury affected the main event scene for WWE TLC.
As noted on this week’s WWE Raw, Braun Strowman is still present on the WWE TLC match. Baron Corbin is his opponent in a match with high stakes. If the acting WWE Raw general manager wins this match then he will become the permanent GM of the show. In case Strowman wins then he gets a Universal Championship shot at Royal Rumble. But that will only happen if he is able to overcome the surgery repercussions and perform at the PPV event.
Current reports suggested that there’s no way that the monster among men will make it to WWE TLC. It is less than three weeks way in WWE programming. So, it’s impossible to heal up the wounds of a shattered elbow within that timespan. WWE officials did have a backup plan considering this, all the way. They had a couple of former WWE Champions’ names in mind to replace the behemoth superstar.
As per the Dirty Sheets, Kurt Angle was the original pick to replace Braun Strowman at WWE TLC. He is the one who shares a natural bad blood with Baron Corbin over the authoritative post of WWE Raw. So this seems a perfect storyline angle with the power struggle hanging in the balance. But the plans did not reach culmination as stated below, (courtesy wwfoldschool.com)
“WWE originally planned to have WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle replace Strowman in this match and have Angle vs. Corbin in a TLC match, but WWE officials felt that match won’t deliver. This led to WWE officials planning to do a 6 man tag team TLC match between the teams of Kurt Angle/Elias/Finn Balor and Baron Corbin/Drew McIntyre/Bobby Lashley. This is the reason why the trio led by Corbin destroyed Elias & Balor on this week’s RAW.”
Bray Wyatt was the other alternative name to replace Braun Strowman at WWE TLC. He returned at the Starrcade event to fuel up the rumors of showing up on WWE Raw, too. But we have not seen him on the live TV episode despite being present at backstage. This might have been an indication that WWE locking in the aforementioned tag team main event match.
