7 unpopular decisions made in 2018

#6 The Raw Tag Team Championship being held by a 10 year old

Having a child as your tag team partner mocked the entire Raw Tag Team division.

Despite Strowman being a dominant force since he was exclusively drafted to Raw back in July 2016, he has struggled to turn this form into Championships with five failed attempts to win the Universal Championship including his Money in the Bank contract cash-in. The only title he’s captured so far is the Raw Tag Team Championship.

Like every other active title in the WWE, the Raw Tag Team Championship is a title a lot of wrestlers desperately try to claim at some point in their career. When Braun Strowman won a controversial battle royal to face The Bar for the titles at WrestleMania 34, there was a lot of speculation as to who it could have been.

It could have been a returning superstar like the Big Show, a new up-and-comer wrestler from NXT like Lars Sullivan, or even a ‘weaker’ wrestler, who are usually more on the losing end of matches (where Strowman would most likely be carrying in future tag team matches) like Curt Hawkins. The possibilities were endless.

Strowman shocked the WWE Universe by deciding to pick his partner as a random fan in the audience at WrestleMania 34, namely a ten-year-old boy named Nicholas. This was genuinely a poor decision for so many reasons. Firstly, by giving a child the opportunity to win a Championship at WrestleMania 34 over other tag-team talents like Gallows and Anderson or The Revival is borderline insulting to them and every other tag team on Raw. Secondly, the decision was wrong because it somewhat harmed The Bar’s credibility as both a tag-team and as individual wrestlers.

While it can be understood that the WWE wanted to portray Strowman to be even more of an unstoppable force, it doesn’t justify two wrestlers as successful as Sheamus and Cesaro (who have amassed over 16 Championships between the two of them, including 3 WWE Championship reigns) to be completely squashed by Braun Strowman in less than five minutes. Finally, the aftermath the following night on Raw was disastrous. Strowman and Nicholas relinquished the titles because Nicholas had school duties - in short, the whole match was pointless, to begin with.

Even though the likes of Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre have brought some prestige back in the Championships again since then, it still doesn’t ignore the fact that a ten-year-old child is going to be in the history books of this title alongside the likes of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, The New Day, and D-Generation X.