Bron Breakker’s arrival as a world champion is nearing. The irony in that is there was a time not too long ago when Breakker wasn’t even the most hyped signing in his performance centre class. At that moment the buzz surrounded Parker Boudreaux, and although he has worked hard overseas and is earning his way, he got his foot in WWE’s door because of the direct comparisons to Brock Lesnar.
Those comparisons alone were unfair. Although Boudreaux is likely to end up back in WWE or AEW before the end of his career, the stud of that intake was always Bronson Rechsteiner. He’s a natural athlete with collegiate credentials running into infinity, combined with a wrestling pedigree thanks to his father Rick Steiner and uncle Scott Steiner. I’ll echo what I said four years ago — the man we now know as Bron Breakker is the standout of that class.
Now four years into his career, Breakker has multiple title reigns under his belt and amid Seth Rollins’ injury now has been fast tracked into a more prominent role on WWE television.
Envisioning the Future
Breakker is the future of WWE, and it’s a matter of when and not “if” he becomes a main roster world champion. That inevitability became more likely once he was aligned with Seth Rollins, Bronson Reed and Paul Heyman in a new faction this year that positioned Rollins as the focal point. Nonetheless, the inclusion put Breakker in a prominent role in the main event scene. Concurrently, he was put in spitting distance of the world championship. Then if you add in the spice of Heyman and his penchant for managing the next big attraction and his character’s love for championships, a turn on Rollins was inevitable if it meant anointing Breakker as “the next one.”
Following their attack on Rollins on the Oct. 13 episode of Raw, Heyman made these comments to open the next week’s episode:
“The Vision had nothing to do with Seth “Freaking” Rollins. I didn’t leave the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns and betray my best friend CM Punk for Seth “Freaking” Rollins. I pulled those moves at WrestleMania because Bron Breakker is the future of WrestleMania. I pulled those moves at WrestleMania because deep in my heart I always knew that Bronson Reed was better than Roman Reigns.
…
Winners write history, and these are the winners right here. Seth Rollins was going to main event WrestleMania no more. That spot was taken from him by Bron Breakker.”
Heyman goes on to outline how Breakker and Reed had the drive, intensity and ambition to conspire against Rollins to take his spot for themselves and become WrestleMania main eventers.
This “re-Vision of the future” was hastened according to reports that positioned the turn to not occur until some time in 2026. The reshuffle was obviously forced, but the result is the same with Reed and Breakker pushed forward into the future toward the main event picture. Heyman’s promo was successful in establishing that new status quo to refocus Raw and its remaining 2025 shows leading into 2026.
It’s clear as well that WWE views the younger Steiner as the future due to their desire to protect him from losses in the world title match for the vacant championship that Punk eventually claimed, in addition to the battle royale that preceded it. That keeps Breakker strong optically amid reports that he is viewed as the future of the company. That report notes the company desires to reserve Bron’s coronation for a bigger stage — presumably a core PLE.
CM Punk is on borrowed “clobbering time”
With Punk winning the championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event this month, considering what we know has been reported and what is clear in the booking on Raw, Breakker is destined for the world title. Again, it’s “when” and not “if.”
This positions Punk to be the sacrifice to Breakker. I think since they’ve already exhausted the quick turnaround with Punk winning and then dropping the title to Rollins, it devalues Punk and Breakker’s eventual win if you quickly have Punk drop the title to anyone who isn’t a genetically optimized, dog-faced Superman-like freak crossed with a gremlin. It doesn’t make sense. Conversely if you look ahead to the major PLEs, we’re likely looking at Royal Rumble for a potential Breakker win. It’s more plausible with Survivor Series right around the corner and he and Punk are tied up in the War Games match.
I get the sense that we are closer to Breakker being champion than not, and unless the desire is to run the program with Punk to WrestleMania, with the 2026 Royal Rumble being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that’s about as big a platform as WWE is going to have between now and WrestleMania. Given the timeline, the order of PLEs and major shows, and the reality that Punk is the best person to be served up to Breakker considering his association with Heyman, within two months time I think WWE crowns Breakker as the world heavyweight champion.
Punk’s stock is sound and I don’t believe anyone thinks a loss to a savage like Breakker hurts his standing among fans. Where it feels like others are more so orbiting the WWE title and Cody Rhodes, Punk is a solid stop gap to accomplish the goals of the original plot and whatever we suppose its original storyline structure was going to be. This doesn’t mean Punk should automatically be removed from the picture, as the story can be prolonged even once Breakker presumably ends Punk’s reign in the near future.
I think there are some other story wrinkles that can be worked into the sequence of events, but the ultimate goal is to establish Bron. Once that’s accomplished what happens next positively or negatively is going to define his career.
Breakking Out
Standing out seems to be all Bron does in WWE. From the moment he arrived in NXT and came up to the main roster, he has claimed titles while his presence and physical feats have continually stolen eyes, social media hits and replays. Along the way he has been in the right feuds at the right time whether it was his NXT title feuds, or his exchanges with Sami Zayn over the IC title. Now with his name attached to Rollins, his own faction, Paul Heyman and the monolith of CM Punk, Bron’s future is now.
Breakker has always been positioned well since his arrival in the company, and with the same care seemingly being given to his ascension to world championship status, Bron is poised to be given the platform to live up to the expectations of the company, people who have followed him freshly, or people like me who are — frankly — longtime Steiner family fans.
In my opinion Breakker has everything you need to succeed in WWE. You might not always agree with the company, its decisions, or so much of the behind-the-scenes corporate centric movements, but in terms of being product-focused christening Bron with a world title is the right move. It directs the company toward a fresh future at a time when many of its last world champions have been crowned in their mid-30s or later.
Many of those men are now either out of the company or are in their 40s (Gunther and Rollins being exceptions). That makes Breakker’s potential win that much more critical for the company. If he is going to be the face of the company’s future his rise to the top needs to be done right. Any missteps aren’t going to critically hamper him permanently, but I also don’t think you need to run anything too risky beyond a savage beatdown of Punk.
Punk is the perfect sacrifice to that end, and an oxymoronic conversative-yet-savage thrashing is the right play to cement Bron Breakker as the future of a company whose recent world champions are not long for the sport. WWE has got itself into trouble in the past by not looking to the future at the right moment, but it must also be cautioned that with an aging roster at the top that one person can’t do it alone. That’s especially true of someone who is still developing despite their successes — even if they are athletically gifted and proficient in Steiner Math.
