Braun Strowman Looks Back On Winning A World Title In WWE

At WrestleMania 36, Braun Strowman received the opportunity to challenge for the WWE Universal Championship. Ultimately, this opportunity proved to be an important marker in Strowman's career, as it resulted in him claiming his very first world championship in WWE. As an added bonus, Strowman's title reign was kicked off with a win over one of his childhood idols — WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg. During a recent interview on "Insight With Chris Van Vliet," Strowman opened up about the significance of his title win.

"It meant the world because like I said, as a kid growing up idolizing [Goldberg] to becoming friends with him, unfortunate circumstances with everything going on with the pandemic and what happened, he wanted me," Strowman said. "So he picked me to do that and do the honors and pass that torch."

As Strowman alluded to, his WWE Universal Championship win was preceded by an unfortunate series of events connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that he was immunocompromised, Roman Reigns, who was initially slotted to challenge Goldberg, decided to pull out of the WrestleMania 36 premium live event in an effort to protect his health. As a result, WWE was then tasked with selecting a replacement opponent for Goldberg. Per a recommendation from Goldberg himself, WWE later bestowed that honor onto Strowman.

"[Goldberg told me] 'I can count on one hand how many people that I would do this for, and I still have three fingers left,'" Strowman recalled.

Strowman's WWE Universal Championship reign spanned 141 days before he lost the title to "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt at the 2020 SummerSlam event.