The Brawling Brutes

The Brawling Brutes is a professional wrestling stable consisting of Sheamus, who serves as its leader, Ridge Holland, and Butch. They are currently signed to WWE, where they perform on the SmackDown brand. Their leader, Sheamus, is currently out of action with a shoulder injury.

The Brawling Brutes
The Brawling Brutes' logo
Statistics
Members	Sheamus (leader) Ridge Holland Butch
Name(s)	The Brawling Brutes
Billed heights	Sheamus: 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Holland: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Butch: 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Combined billed weight	975 lb (442 kg)
Debut	November 19, 2021
Years active	2021–present

History

 

The Brawling Brutes at the Clash at the Castle event in 2022. (L–R: Ridge Holland, Sheamus, and Butch)

During the 2021 WWE Draft, Holland was drafted from NXT to SmackDown. On the November 19 episode of SmackDown, Holland helped Sheamus defeat Cesaro, Ricochet, and Jinder Mahal in a four-way match, starting an alliance between the two.^[1] On January 1, 2022, at Day 1, Holland would team with Sheamus to defeat Cesaro and Ricochet, however, during the match, Holland would suffer a broken nose and would be removed mid-match.

In March, they would enter a feud with The New Day, where on the March 11 episode of SmackDown, Sheamus and Holland introduced Butch as part of their stable. After an overhead belly-to-belly suplex by Holland on Big E legitimately broke the latter's neck,^[2] Big E was promptly removed from the rivalry, leaving only Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. On Night 2 of WrestleMania 38, Holland and Sheamus defeated Kingston and Woods in a tag-team match.

On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Sheamus won a fatal five-way match, earning a match against Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at Clash at the Castle.^[3] The following week on SmackDown, Sheamus and Gunther had a confrontation, in which Sheamus and Gunther's respective allies, Butch and Ludwig Kaiser, engaged in a brawl while Sheamus and Gunther remained motionless, staring each other down, and eventually started a slow face turn for their stable.^[4] At Clash at the Castle, Sheamus lost to Gunther, but received a standing ovation from the Cardiff crowd in a critically acclaimed 5-star match according to Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, cementing the stable's face turn. On the September 23 episode of SmackDown, Holland and Butch faced The Usos for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship but were unsuccessful after interference from Imperium, then on the October 4 episode of NXT faced Pretty Deadly for the NXT Tag Team Championship in a losing effort after interference from Imperium. Four days later at Extreme Rules, The Brawling Brutes defeated Imperium in a six-man tag team Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook match. After defeating The Bloodline's Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa in a tag team match, Holland and Butch received another opportunity against The Usos at Crown Jewel where they failed to win the titles. Three weeks later at Survivor Series WarGames on November 26, The Brawling Brutes along with Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens lost to The Bloodline in a WarGames match.^[5]After regaining each other's respect at Wargames, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre reformed their on-again-off-again tag team, which they jokingly referred to by the suggestive name, "The Banger Brothers", leading to McIntyre becoming an ally of the Brutes. Over the next few months, McIntyre and Sheamus would team up, until March 2023, when McIntyre supposedly went behind Sheamus's back and challenged Gunther for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Sheamus would start to be less involved in the Brawling Brutes other feuds like Pretty Deadly and The Judgment Day. The Brawling Brutes competed in the Slim Jim Summerslam Battle Royal but all failed to win. Butch would enter the NXT Global Heritage Invitational and would win the tournament by beating Joe Coffey in the finals. Butch would fail to beat Noam Dar for the NXT Heritage Cup. Butch made an alliance with Tyler Bate to fight Joe Coffey's group Gallus. Ridge Holland would interfere in their match to help Butch. A six man tag team Pub Rules Match would end the feud with The Brawling Brutes beating Gallus. The Brawling Brutes would remain on NXT to be in the NXT Bada Bing Bada Boom Tag Team Battle Royal and was eliminated by OTM.

Members

*	Founding member(s)
L	Leader

Current

Member	Joined
Sheamus (L)	November 19, 2021*
Ridge Holland	November 19, 2021*
Butch	March 11, 2022

Timeline

References

1. Powell, Jason (November 19, 2021). "11/19 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Powell's review of Sasha Banks vs. Shotzi, Sheamus vs. Ricochet vs. Cesaro vs. Jinder Mahal in a four-way for the final spot on Team Smackdown, Roman Reigns takes his seat on the throne, the final push for Survivor Series". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
2. Currier, Joseph (March 12, 2022). "WWE's Big E provides update on broken neck, won't need surgery". f4wonline.com. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
3. Barnett, Jake (August 19, 2022). "8/19 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Barnett's review of Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre meet face to face, Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne vs. Sonya Deville and Natalya in a WWE Women's Tag Title tournament match, Sheamus vs. Happy Corbin vs. Sami Zayn vs. Ricochet vs. Riddick Moss for a shot at the Intercontinental Title at WWE Clash at the Castle". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
4. "8/26 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Powell's review of Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn, Happy Corbin vs. Ricochet, Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah face the winners of a second chance four-way in the WWE Women's Tag Team Title tournament semifinals". 26 August 2022.
5. Powell, Jason (November 26, 2022). "WWE Survivor Series WarGames results: Powell's review of The Bloodline vs. Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, and The Brawling Brutes in a WarGames match, Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Alexa Bliss, and Mia Yim vs. Rhea Ripley, Nikki Cross, and Damage CTRL in a WarGames match, Seth Rollins vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Austin Theory for the U.S. Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved November 27, 2022.