On June 2, Braun Strowman was released by WWE.
Strowman had become one of the top stars in the company over the years, was a former WWE Universal Champion, wrestled Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 37, and competed for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania Backlash, which turned out to be his last match in the company.
Speaking to JC in a Control Your Narrative interview, Strowman (Adam Scherr) commented on his WWE release.
"I'm so indebted to that company and Vince McMahon because he gave me a shot and an opportunity to meet you guys. I never would have been able to meet you guys if I didn't get involved in this business. I never would have been able to travel the world, see the things that I've done, meet the people I've done, fall in love with people that I met through this business. It's something special. I'm so unbelievably humbled for these experiences that I was able to experience with WWE. Did it end how I wanted it to? Of course not. I know people always...I've been hearing it a ton, 'You said you'd never wrestle again when you were done with WWE.' Well, I was forced to be done. I said I would never wrestle for another company when I took my boots off for WWE. I never took my boots off, I never had an opportunity to put them back on and come back to work. I ain't gonna lie, it sent me to a pretty bad place," he said.
He continued by saying, "It's a hard thing to realize, the wrestling business is very cutthroat. There are a lot of fairweather friends that came and went through this whole process. Praising and lifting you up when you're on top of the mountain but when the mountain crumbles beneath your feet, they are standing and kicking dirt on top of you and continue to bury you. It's a hard reality pill that I had to swallow. Seeing literally my life's work slip through my fingertips. I always said, I feel like God put me on this earth to be a WWE superstar, and for awhile he did. When the realization of hitting what my rock bottom is, I realized I was put on this earth for more. I was put on this earth to inspire people. What you guys have alloted me to do is to fix myself and what was going on with me and my depression and anger and rage for things in my life that I couldn't control. You gave me a platform and a place to be able to control myself and tear myself down."
Strowman expressed his gratitude to JC and EC3 for allowing him to be part of Free The Narrative II. EC3 and JC told Fightful that the parties were discussing working together the day before he was released by WWE.
Strowman went on to say that he's had other companies reach out, but he turned them down to finish Free The Narrative II.
"I turned down a lot of money. Like, an astronomical amount of money to do this. There are days where I'm thinking about it like, 'Holy shit.' Every three letter word corporation out there has made me an offer, talked to me, about what I want to do moving forward. I said, 'first and foremost, I have something that I want to do.' One was [Free The Narrative]. Two was just having the chance to breathe and live. Unbelievably blessed for my time in WWE, but it was very very time-consuming. In five years, I saw my parents like eight times. I missed people's funerals, weddings, births, Christmas, Thanksgiving. The time was amazing, don't get me wrong, but I'm a human being and I have needs when it comes to comfort. I'm very close with my parents. Being able to work on my friends on a project, work on an app, doing all the other stuff that I have coming out soon that I can talk about more. Just being able to live and going back to my grassroots. This is one of the biggest things coming out of the narrative, remembering who the fuck I was," he said.
Fightful Select reported on October 3 that IMPACT Wrestling was interested in bringing in Strowman. MLW Founder Court Bauer confirmed he had talks with Strowman, but a deal wasn't reached.
It is unknown which promotion Strowman will sign with. You can find results from Free The Narrative II by clicking here.
