Bronson Reed and Braun Strowman never really got round to starting their match in an official capacity this week, and yet they somehow managed to deliver more stupendous excitement in a way that couldn’t be defined by a win or a loss. In case you hadn’t realized, both Reed and Strowman happen to be colossal guys. But they are colossal guys capable of moving like a freight train when the time calls for it. Evidently, someone made that call this week, and what unfolded was non-stop Kong vs. Godzilla energy: the top ring rope unable to withstand Reed almost literally exploding from its fixings, Reed throwing a fan (probably, hopefully, a planted fan) at Strowman like he was a sack of potatoes, Strowman running the train to send Reed through the barricade, then getting put through a table backstage, and returning the favor to finally drive himself and the Kiwi through drywall. That seems like a lot, right? But it certainly didn’t feel that way. It was stroke-for-stroke, move-for-move, and well paced for a brief segment.

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For Strowman, it felt like a call back to his best form throughout 2016-17, during which time he became thermonuclear with the fans after flipping an ambulance containing Roman Reigns after putting him in there with the catchphrase, “I’m not finished with you!!!” And there was an element of narrative progression with their ongoing feud, foregoing the hit to either competitor’s momentum that would come from a definite result, while also giving the fans a degree of what they wanted to see. In a world of rapid work rates and increasing the degrees achieved in a splash, there is a niche for those with a much larger frame. Reed is seeking to make that niche is, while Strowman will feel that is a spot he has more than earned by now. So the feud makes total sense; it makes total sense to extend the idea of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object, it makes total sense to let both guys do what they do best, and it makes total sense that they would want to keep the ball rolling without hitching a win to either guy. A titanic collision fused with a relentless spotfest — one might say the very essence of what WWE should be.

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It’s also just hilarious.

Bronson Reed has been fined a massive undisclosed amount for plucking an adult human male from the Portland audience and firing him at Braun Strowman.

Both men have been fined an equal undisclosed amount for destroying walls, golf carts, production equipment, and my sanity.

— Adam Pearce (@ScrapDaddyAP) September 17, 2024

Written by Max Everett