One of the key storylines heading into WrestleMania 34 was who would be Braun Strowman’s tag team partner for his RAW Tag Team Title opportunity against The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro).
Speculation ran rampant from fans as to who the partner could be; with predictions such as The Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Bobby Lashley, Hulk Hogan, and many more being tossed around by fans.
When it came down to it, however, Braun Strowman’s partner was none other than – Nicholas. Strowman selected the 10-year-old elementary school student from the crowd, who just so happened to be WWE referee John Cone’s son.
The decision received a mixed review from fans – with some being happy for the child for getting to participate in such an amazing moment, and others being angered by the call as it devalues the RAW Tag Team Titles and both Sheamus and Cesaro as well.
On a recent edition of the Triple Threat Podcast, “The Franchise” Shane Douglas weighed in on WWE’s decision to have Strowman win the titles with Nicholas. He explained why it was a worse call than having David Arquette win the WCW World Heavyweight Title back in 2000:
“My understanding and from the guys in my entourage (that attended WrestleMania) were saying that the audience kind of died after that match and you could kind of felt the energy leave the room. But we’ve heard for eighteen years that Vince Russo is the worst thing ever to wrestling because he put the belt on David Arquette. As much as I disagree with that decision that was better than putting a belt on a ten year old kid. My thought as soon as I heard this was what about Cesaro and Sheamus?
“They’ve got to go out and do a job to one guy that has a ten year old kid as his sidekick. The only way that could have worked and this may sound terrible but if you think it through it is the only way that could have worked and that is if they had a kid that was a Make-A-Wish kid or a kid that had been sick or something and you bring him in and do something to pop the crowd. It would have still been up-roared by wrestling purists but you would have seen some kind of some light at the end of the tunnel with it.
“Vince Russo has been vilified for eighteen years over the David Arquette thing and now we have this. But to be fair and let’s throw some stuff in there from WrestleMania weekend. There was a show that shall go unnamed (but you can find it I’m sure if you looked) where they had The Invisible Man come out and win a battle royal. I go back to Bill Watts and I tell Bill Watts specifically about that and his mouth dropped open when I said it. To me, it reeks of and it seems that nobody has respect for the industry or their own work in the industry anymore.
“If everything is a spoof and everything is a Saturday Night Live skit where does it end? You mentioned in your lead in that Vince Russo has been vilified in this industry to this day and look at the feedback you guys got off of the interview you had with David Arquette. To me, that is so much more plausible as implausible and that was so much more plausible than having a ten year old kid come out of the audience and win the World Tag Team Titles.
“It speaks to all of what is wrong with our business today and this is what everybody hears me say in any interview and that this is the difference of sports entertainment to professional wrestling. There is a very stark difference. Nothing against the kid and I am happy that he lived a dream that he will have the rest of his life and remember forever but that is not what WrestleMania is supposed to be about and that is not what the product is supposed to be about.
“It just underscores to me just how far off the track our industry has gone. After eighteen years of vilification of Vince Russo of that (David Arquette) decision we now get this. In light of and at the same time we get The Invisible Man winning battle royals, we get freeze-frames, we get pretend hand grenades and all of this crazy stuff that has nothing to do with wrestling.”
