Braun Strowman’s WWE name came together in the most random way possible, and ESPN somehow ended up playing a role in it.
While speaking on the 10,000 NOs podcast, Strowman said WWE rejected several name ideas he pitched because he wanted to keep something tied to his strongman background. The company needed a name immediately for trademark reasons, and that pressure led to the final choice.
“This is the most random story of how this came about. So, I had pitched all these ideas for names. I wanted to try and keep like the strongman moniker in there and Country Strong and Big Country was my nickname in strongman. They shot them all down either for copyright reasons or they just didn’t like them. And I’m at the Performance Center in Orlando at the time and they called down and were like, ‘Look, we have to have a name for him today. We have to submit all this stuff in for trademark and all this.'”
Strowman said he was sitting in the WWE Performance Center office with SportsCenter on when the broadcast mentioned Ryan Braun. That gave him the first half of the name, because “Braun” sounded close to “brawny.” Then the show immediately moved to Marcus Stroman, giving him the second half. The name was originally “Stoman,” but Vince McMahon made one small change that stuck. He added the “R” because, in true Vince fashion, he thought it made the name fit Strowman’s character better.
“So, I’m sitting in the office of the WWE Performance Center and SportsCenter’s on. And they’re talking about Ryan Braun. And I’m like, ‘Braun, Braun, I’m kind of brawny.’ And then literally they transition right after that and they start talking about Marcus Stroman, the baseball player. So, literally my name came from watching SportsCenter because they were talking about two guys on TV.”
“So, it was Stoman at first, then Vince put the R in it. Strowman, because he’s a showman. That’s exactly how he said it.”
Braun Strowman’s WWE name wasn’t cooked up in some deep creative meeting. It came from a deadline, SportsCenter, two baseball players, and Vince McMahon deciding one extra “R” made him sound more like a showman, which is classic WWE in the end.
What do you think about Braun Strowman’s WWE name origin story? Drop your thoughts below and let us know.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
