[#1-norm-fan]

Originally Posted by Noid My sentiments pretty much echo that. The guy is not there yet, so you can't build around him, because that will fall apart. Agree with the tough choice, because it's in my head that if you push people past him, they're going to get backlash for overtaking Braun, but if you push Braun, then you're pushing Braun. On top of that is whether or not he'll get back to where he was. They've been testing him from day one. I hear that Braun was always booked really well. I see what people mean, but the guy lost every PPV match he was in since the brand split until at least WrestleMania. He was eliminated from the Survivor Series and his team also lost, he lost to Sami Zayn at ROADBLOCK: END OF THE LINE due to the time limit, got eliminated from the Royal Rumble, lost to Roman, and didn't win the Andre Battle Royal. That's five straight PPV losses. Only one by pin, granted, so they "protected him," but they've fashioned him to be able to take losses in the way they want big men to be able to. He's always felt like their next Kane to me during this period. A guy they want to be able to plug into upper mid-card stuff and be able to say "Isn't Braun scary?" when he realistically hasn't done anything for a long period of time. He seems to have passed all those tests and they're going to try him as the superhero babyface.

I think where you and I differ on Braun is that I think "He's over by today's standards and that's something to build on" and you think "Over 'by today's standards' isn't that over."

I don't really care for Braun that much. I don't think he has much megastar potential when it comes to him carrying the show. But he's a main event face that hits Vince's basic checkmarks who ACTUALLY gets a face reaction in 2018. Which is crazy. The booking will surely fuck him up, if it hasn't started to already. But let's just start with being thankful that a non-IWCcentric guy WWE wants to be a main event face is getting the proper reactions and build from there.