Adam Scherr, formerly Braun Strowman, is ‘working on the tolls of eight years’ as a WWE superstar

Adam Scherr is enjoying some breathing room after eight years as Braun Strowman under the WWE umbrella. Scherr officially joined WWE in 2013 and made his main roster debut in 2015. Within six years of officially being a WWE superstar, Strowman captured the WWE universal, intercontinental and tag team championships, plus a Money in the Bank briefcase as well as the Greatest Royal Rumble.

Scherr made an appearance at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle event on Dec. 11 and has a few independent bookings scheduled. Speaking with CBS Sports, Scherr denied reports of renewed talks with Impact Wrestling. In fact, he claimed to not be actively seeking a full-time deal with any pro-wrestling company.

“I’m not looking for a full-time signing,” Scherr said. “I’m looking to enjoy some of my time. I love the art of professional wrestling and eight years with WWE was very time-consuming. I was very, very blessed with the opportunities that I had. I got to see the world and all these things. But it’s been nice having these last six months to take a step back and breathe for a second. I forgot about all these little things in life that mean so much. Time flies by and you forget about it. You don’t get a chance to do it. So I’m catching up on spending time with my family and loved ones. Working on my mental health and my physical health. Working on the tolls of eight years of being a WWE superstar.

“Being full-time on TV every week, I’m not going to lie, it’s stressful. It’s nice not having that added stress element every week. Right now, I’m just looking to enjoy my time. Have fun, sell out some buildings, raise some money for some charities, and just go out there and do what I do, and that’s put smiles on people’s faces.”  

Check out the full interview with Adam Scherr below.

Scherr has upcoming gigs with Qatar Pro Wrestling and a Dubai date that CBS Sports broke earlier this week. “The Titan” confirmed that fellow former WWE superstar Killer Kross is going to be involved with Scherr and EC3 on “Free the Narrative” content.

“You’ll be seeing a lot more rolling out moving forward,” Scherr said. “Kross is on the card as well in Qatar. This is going to be part of our next step in the awakening of the wrestling business. There is a lot of stuff that is on the hush-hush right now. I’ll give you a little hint, he’s in on it.”

Scherr opened up about his vulnerabilities in a podcast appearance following his WWE release. Mental health is something Scherr has made a priority in his life and that of others.

“Learning to actually discuss my problems. Everybody has problems and it’s so faux pas to swallow your feelings. That doesn’t work. It does for a while, but eventually, you’re going to swallow so much that you’re going to explode. That’s what happened to me,” Scherr said. “Your friends, your family, your loved ones. That’s the cool thing about human beings and what has set us apart from the animal kingdom and deemed us superior on this Earth is our ability to work together to overcome obstacles.

“I want to be remembered for something more than just beating the s— out of people in a wrestling ring.”

To that effect, Scherr is working on a mental health app called Diskuss.

“It’s in its blooming phases. We launched it right around Thanksgiving and it really started to grow,” he said. “It gives you licensed certified therapists, mental coaches, life coaches in the palm of your hand by audio, video and text message services 24 hours a day. It’s fully encrypted so all your information is protected.

“But the coolest thing is it gives you the opportunity to do it from the comfort of your own home. A lot of people, myself included when I went and talked to somebody for the first time, are really, really nervous about it. Having that option to do it from home where you’re really, really comfortable is going to help a lot more people be able to overcome a lot of people overcome obstacles they’re dealing with in their lives.”

Scherr received a lot of backlash in March 2020 after criticizing fundraising and crowdfunding efforts to support independent wrestlers out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Here we go with more of the somebody pay for my bills stuff,” Scherr wrote at the time. “If you can’t afford to pay your bills maybe you should change professions. That’s why I quit strongman. I loved it, but I couldn’t afford to live so instead of making a go fund me or a Patreon wanting someone else to take care of me I went out and worked harder than I ever have in my life to get to where I am. What happened to being accountable for your own actions????!!!”

Reflecting on that statement, Scherr stood by his intentions but confessed that it aged poorly.

“I still believe in it. In my opinion, people took it out of context,” Scherr said. “Did it age terribly? Absolutely. I made that comment months before the lockdown, before all of this stuff. Of course, everybody ran wild with it and tried to make more out of it than it really was for the clickbait. At the end of the day, it was motivational, in my opinion, what I was trying to talk about. Sometimes in life your goals and what you dream about, you can’t do. That’s the point, dry and simple. So many people, I think, have gotten complacent with putting their problems and making somebody else’s theirs.

“Sometimes you need to control your own destiny. That’s how it was with me in strongman. I was in the top five strongest guys on the planet. I loved it. I didn’t want to leave the sport, but I couldn’t pay my bills. So there comes a time when you have to realize what is an achievable and attainable goal for what you have to do to survive. That was how all that got taken out of context. Some people don’t like it. Some people do. Either way, it doesn’t bother me none. That’s what I still believe. I’ve worked my butt off for everything I’ve ever gotten in my entire life. It was a motivational thing to tell people, ‘Hey, sometimes this may not work out for you. Go and try something else. Look what can happen.’ That’s what it was for me. Look what I was doing. I took a chance and look what I made out of it.”