Adam Scherr was born on September 6, 1983, in the Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, near Charlotte. His father, Rick “Crusher” Scherr, is widely regarded as one of the greatest slow-pitch softball players of all time, and is a USSSA Hall of Fame member who still holds the All Time World Series records in home runs (101), hits (166), and RBIs (202). Scherr has a younger sister named Hannah. As he grew older, he spent time in Arkansas and Tennessee. As a teen, he attended Bandys High School, where he was on the football, track and field, and wrestling teams. He went through a significant growth spurt in high school; he was 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) during his freshman year and grew to 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) by the time he graduated. After graduating in 2001, he “goofed off” until 2003, when he enrolled in a community college. He spent the next four years playing football semi-professionally for the Hickory Hornets, supplementing his income by working as a doorman and mechanic. Scherr attended the NFL Scouting Combine in 2007, but he ultimately did not turn professional. In the late 2000s, he began competing in amateur strongman competitions.

Scherr earned his Strongman Corporation (ASC) Professional Card by winning the NAS Amateur National Championships on November 5, 2011. He won the 2012 Arnold Amateur Strongman Championships on March 4, which took place during the Arnold Sports Festival alongside the 2012 Arnold Strongman Classic. This victory earned Scherr an invite to the 2013 Arnold Strongman Classic. He competed in the SCL North American Championships on July 8, 2012, finishing in 5th place overall as well as competing in the Giants Live Poland event on July 21, finishing in 7th place overall.

Scherr signed a contract with the professional wrestling promotion WWE in early 2013 and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, where he adopted the ring name Braun Stowman (with the first name a reference to Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun). In 2014, he made appearances as one of Adam Rose’s “Rosebuds” in his Exotic Express gimmick. He made his professional wrestling debut at an NXT live event in Jacksonville, Florida on December 19, 2014, defeating Chad Gable. On June 2, 2015, Stowman appeared at a Main Event taping in a dark match, where he defeated an unidentified wrestler.

On January 24, 2016, Strowman appeared at the Royal Rumble and scored among the most eliminations in the Royal Rumble match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, eliminating five opponents before being eliminated by Brock Lesnar, only to return to the match and helping his fellow Wyatt Family members to eliminate Lesnar. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter wrote that Strowman was “put over as a monster” in the match. On February 21 at Fastlane, The Wyatt Family lost to the team of Big Show, Kane and Ryback, but they got their win back the next night on Raw in a rematch. Strowman appeared on April 3 at WrestleMania 32 during The Rock and John Cena’s confrontation with The Wyatt Family. The Wyatt Family were originally scheduled to face The League of Nations on May 1 at Payback, but the match was canceled after Wyatt suffered a legitimate injury. In July, The Wyatt Family began a feud with the WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day, which saw them defeating The New Day in a six-man tag team match on July 24 at Battleground.

Strowman later became involved in The Miz’s feud with the reformed stable The Shield, leading to a five-on-three handicap TLC match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in October, with Strowman teaming with The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus and Kane against Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Kurt Angle. During the match, Strowman’s teammates turned on him, throwing him into the back of a garbage truck, thus turning Strowman into a face in the process. His team would also go on to lose the match. Strowman would return to Raw the following week, attacking The Miz and The Miztourage (Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas). At Survivor Series in November, Strowman appeared as part of Team Raw, defeating Team SmackDown as Strowman and Triple H were the sole survivors of the team. On the December 11 episode of Raw, Strowman fought Kane to a double countout in a match to determine the number one contender to the Universal Championship on January 28, 2018 at the Royal Rumble leading to the match being changed to a triple threat match involving also Kane and Lesnar. At the event, Strowman would be unsuccessful in winning. The next night on Raw, Strowman defeated Kane in Last Man Standing match to qualify for the Elimination Chamber match at the titular pay-per-view to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship. At the event on February 25, Strowman eliminated The Miz, Elias, John Cena, Finn Bálor and Seth Rollins (setting the new record for the most eliminations in a single Elimination Chamber match), but in the end he was eliminated by Roman Reigns.