4 Potential Opponents for Samoa Joe on WWE Raw
By Adam O'Brien
WWE.com
2. Sami Zayn
We saw a glimpse of what this feud could be like when Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe squared off in NXT in early 2016, in a match to determine the no. 1 contender to Finn Bálor’s NXT Championship at NXT TakeOver: Dallas – two days before WrestleMania.
It was a fantastic match that set the wheels in motion for Samoa Joe’s journey to becoming the NXT Champion a number of months later, and Sami Zayn’s farewell tour that culminated in a spectacular outing against Shinsuke Nakamura.
Now that these men both find themselves on the flagship show of the WWE, a heated rivalry beckons. As we saw with his violent attack on Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe is bringing his mean streak to Monday nights, and Sami Zayn would be the perfect underdog to work off of that vindictive nature on the road to a high stakes clash.
What’s more is that with Rollins inevitably facing Triple H at WrestleMania, and Sami Zayn’s newest adversary, Chris Jericho potentially going to face Kevin Owens, the chips could easily fall into place for Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn to face one another at WrestleMania 33 – perhaps for the WWE United States Championship.
This rivalry would benefit both men tremendously; Samoa Joe in terms of getting a hot start to his WWE career and Sami Zayn with regards to getting out of the slump he’s been stuck in for quite some time now. On top of that, the emotion and intensity heading into this one promises to create a top notch story and subsequent match.