Braun Strowman And The 5 Biggest Snubs

WWE is streamlining its card for WrestleMania 39, with fewer overall matches and fewer superstars in those bouts.

According to WrestlingNews.co, WWE creative head Triple H “wants a small card this year” for WWE’s flagship show, which has resulted in “some unhappiness about some of the slots on the show being used by legends and celebrities.” Despite WrestleMania 39 spanning two nights and WWE bringing back a number of stars last year to improve the depth of the roster, spots on this year’s WrestleMania match lineup are going to be more difficult to come by than in previous years.

With eight matches already announced, several others—like Edge vs. Finn Balor or Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. The Usos—all but confirmed, and no signs of an Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, a number of full-time stars who’ve carried WWE programming over the past year are going to be left off the show.

Which uber-popular stars are in serious danger of missing the cut? Here are WWE’s five likeliest snubs from the WrestleMania 39 card.

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The Street Profits

Despite a show-stealing performance at last month’s Elimination Chamber, Montez Ford—widely considered to be a future world champion—and Angelo Dawkins of the Street Profits are victims of WWE’s two sets of tag team titles being unified.

The Usos are planned for a highly anticipated match against the duo of Zayn and Owens, which means that The Street Profits, despite their clear popularity, are going to be left out in the cold. That’s a shame, too, because WWE had the opportunity to strike gold with Ford following Elimination Chamber, but instead, the Street Profits have been put on ice as the focus of the tag team division has remained on Jey and Jimmy Uso.

There have long been rumblings of a big singles push for Ford, who is set to be featured with his real-life wife Bianca Belair in an upcoming reality series on Hulu. But alas, WWE isn’t capitalizing on the growing popularity of Ford by booking him in a significant WrestleMania feud, which is undoubtedly a head-scratching move.

Liv Morgan

The booking of WWE’s entire women’s division has been a mess on the road to WrestleMania 39, with the tag team title picture still up in the air and several late changes to the singles title scene completely halting any momentum that the division may have had.

Most of WWE’s high-profile female stars, including Belair, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, are planned or confirmed for marquee matches, but one star who’s been left out to dry is Morgan, who was just the SmackDown Women’s Champion in October. Morgan, however, had the unfortunate task of working with the mundane Ronda Rousey and having to drop her title to the former UFC star.

Since then, Morgan has adopted more of a daredevil persona and remains one of the most popular stars in all of WWE. Yet, even with two singles title matches, a six-woman tag and a tag title match all planned for WrestleMania 39, there is nothing that indicates that the beloved Morgan will even sniff the card.

But that’s what happens when Lita and Trish Stratus are brought back to be included in a monotonous feud that is well past its welcome, isn’t it?

The New Day

With Kofi Kingston currently injured and the possibility that Big E may never wrestle again, The New Day finds itself in an unfamiliar spot: Out of the WrestleMania loop.

That continues what has been a bizarre run for The New Day, which recently found itself back in NXT in what felt like a demotion but was also a way to potentially put more eyes on the struggling NXT TV product. It just feels so odd to see The New Day—even without Big E—stuck in no man’s land, especially considering that the trio once was WrestleMania’s top merchandise sellers and has typically been heavily featured at WrestleMania, with Kingston even winning the WWE title at WrestleMania 35.

Much like The Street Profits, however, WWE’s laser focus on The Bloodline’s domination of the tag team division has—despite the greatness of that storyline—resulted in virtually every other tag team being overlooked as a result.

Braun Strowman

When Braun Strowman was released in 2021, it was surprising to many WWE fans, but then it became clear that Strowman’s massive salary played a significant role in the gargantuan star being a part of WWE’s annual “spring cleaning” budget cuts.

It wasn’t much of a surprise, however, when Strowman returned after Triple H took over WWE’s creative team, as WWE really needed some more star power at the top of the card and “The Monster of All Monsters” has provided SmackDown with exactly that since returning. Yet, Strowman hasn’t exactly been pushed at the same level he was during his first stint with WWE, when he feuded with stars like Roman Reigns and won a world title by beating Goldberg at a fan-less WrestleMania.

Strowman has actually settled in nicely to an upper micard role as a fan favorite, and it’s refreshing to see him featured heavily but not too heavily. But the colossal star can’t even get on the WrestleMania card? While he has what is likely his last chance on SmackDown this week when he competes in a No. 1 contender’s match for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship, he likely isn’t winning that bout.

That means that the star who once won the biggest Royal Rumble-style bout ever and who faced blockbuster boxing attraction Tyson Fury in Fury’s lone WWE match is suddenly not pushed enough to get on the Mania card. Strange.

Alexa Bliss

Over a month ago, PWInsider (h/t Cageside Seats) reported that “Alexa Bliss is taking a break from WWE television…but it was noted that it is not injury related.” Bliss, however, seemed to indicate that wasn’t true. So, in a mere matter of weeks, Bliss went from challenging Belair for the Raw Women’s Championship at Royal Rumble to disappearing altogether.

What’s even more odd is that Bliss had clearly been penciled in for an on-screen reunion with Bray Wyatt, with several teases that the two stars would once again be working together in some fashion. Instead, Wyatt is headed for a big, albeit underwhelming,WrestleMania clash with Bobby Lashley while Bliss is nowhere to be found because she doesn’t really fit into that feud.

It was not even a year ago that Bliss reportedly expressed her frustration with her creative direction, and here we are nearing WrestleMania 39 with more of the same going on. Bliss’s talent, especially as a talker, is undeniable, but WWE just can’t find a consistent role for her.

Then, with Stratus and Lita taking two big spots at WrestleMania, that leaves Bliss and several other female stars with nothing significant to sink their teeth into.