SummerSlam is the perfect time for Samoa Joe to capture RAW’s top prize.
Samoa Joe will be featured in a huge match at SumerSlam 2017: he will be in a Fatal-4-Way for the WWE Universal Championship. Joe will have three very dangerous opponents to face in this match. The reigning and defending champion Brock Lesnar is a monster athlete with explosive power and agility. Braun Strowman is an enormous man with incredible strength of his own and poses a huge challenge for everyone in the match (literally). Finally, Roman Reigns has both considerable momentum from WrestleMania and the WWE machine behind him.
Yet of these three men, Samoa Joe should be the one to win the match and the championship.
Joe has been a devastating force on the RAW roster ever since he debuted on the night after the 2017 Royal Rumble PPV. Despite a few notable losses – including one to Lesnar himself – Joe has managed to maintain an aura of intimidation and intrigue about himself. He’s still presented as a dangerous badass that can back up his words with a realistic danger that’s based on his real-life martial arts abilities.
Simply put, Joe is a dangerous man and he’s already at the top of the roster.
Here, we propose five reasons why Joe should win the Universal Championship at SummerSlam.
RAW. Photo by WWE.com
5. Lesnar is Likely to Return to MMA
The dominant rumor surrounding Brock Lesnar is that he’s planning on leaving WWE to return to MMA, with Jon Jones being his likely first opponent. If this proves to indeed be the case, it doesn’t make sense for Lesnar to continue as champion any further after SummerSlam.
Despite being a major draw, Lesnar’s relevance to pro wrestling hasn’t been that big in recent years. Many of his matches have been disappointing on the whole, especially his WrestleMania 32 match against Dean Ambrose. With him lacking the same influence on casual fans as he once did, it makes sense for him to drop the title to someone else.
Samoa Joe would make sense in this case because he’s the most dynamic of the three challengers for the belt. He has the most variety to offer in a wrestling match, and is the best at being a heel. If Shinsuke Nakamura is set to win the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, it would make sense for the champion on the opposite brand to have the opposing ‘allegiance’ as well.
Source: WWE.com
4. Reigns & Strowman Should Keep Feuding With Each Other Instead
The rivalry between Reigns and Strowman has been one of the few bright spots on RAW this year. For months now, these two men have destroyed each other in absolutely vicious ways, from Strowman flipping an ambulance with Reigns still in it (allegedly), to Reigns smashing another ambulance with Strowman in it into another truck, these two men have gone to incredible lengths to show that this feud is personal, bitter, and unpredictable.
In fact, many people want this rivalry to continue, just so that these two men can continue demonstrating excessive violence against each other. If either man were to win the championship, then the feud between them would likely reach its conclusion at that point.
With Samoa Joe as new WWE Universal Champion, WWE can book new feuds for him and the title while Reigns and Strowman still try to destroy each other in comedically-violent ways.
RAW. Photo by WWE.com
3. Samoa Joe Was a Proven Draw in NXT
Samoa Joe was an excellent main-event level heel in NXT and an excellent champion. They sold his martial arts skills as legitimate and dangerous, and he carried himself as a major threat both as a challenger and as a champion. When he defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the first time, it was a shocking moment because Joe managed to defeat the man that was arguably the most ‘legit’ wrestler on the roster. Joe winning that title and then regaining it for a second time proved that he had the credibility to be a top draw for a brand, and that he could bring legitimacy, excitement and unpredictability to a main-event match.
That’s a key point here: if anyone else were to win the belt, people would find their win and any subsequent wins predictable (example: Reigns winning because he’s Vince’s favorite, Strowman winning because of his physique, Lesnar winning because of who he is).
Joe has proven himself a draw once, and whenever he wrestled, he didn’t bring with him an air of predictability. That’s critical in making a title match exciting, which unfortunately isn’t the case as often with the other men in that match.
WWE.com
2. It Would Be Something Fresh for RAW
RAW’s title scene has been rather underwhelming over the past year, with previous top champions being particularly disappointing. Roman Reigns as WWE Champion was incredibly polarizing and disappointing to many people. Kevin Owens was a cowardly heel that rarely won decisively when it mattered. Goldberg, the man that beat Owens for the Universal Championship in 22 seconds, had a fluke reign that was done solely to appeal to the nostalgic crowd. Finally, Brock Lesnar’s appearances and defenses have been few and far between, leading to those few appearances not having as great of an impact as initially desired.
That leaves us with someone that doesn’t fit the mold of any of those previous title-holders: a wrestler with the legitimate skills of Brock Lesnar, the same ancestry as Samoa Joe, a similar physique of Kevin Owens, and the relative popularity of Goldberg in terms of the more vocal members of the audience.
Samoa Joe would be a great choice as champion because of how different he is. He could choke out opponents on a weekly basis, instead of only appearing irregularly. He could devastate his opponents with his athleticism and explosive power, even if he doesn’t have the physique that Vince McMahon desired. All in all, WWE needs something new in the main event of RAW, and Joe fits that description perfectly.
Source: WWE.com
1. Joe’s Star Power Would Rise Significantly From Another Title Reign
Let’s stop and think what happens to a wrestler when they win a World Title for the first time. It’s a big sign that the company believes in that wrestler, and thus puts all their efforts into making that person into a bigger star.
It tells fans they should watch this person because they’ll be entertained by what this new champion can do. But most importantly, it elevates that wrestler’s credibility to new levels. Sure, a wrestler can talk all they want about how good they think they are, but those promos don’t mean anything until they’re backed up with actions (looking at you, Bray Wyatt).
If Samoa Joe were to win the WWE Universal Championship, it would act as undeniable proof that he’s the real deal. Many casual fans buy into the notion that nothing outside of WWE matters, and thus render all of Joe’s non-WWE accomplishments moot. Winning the WWE Universal Championship would be a way for Joe to prove those people wrong.
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If Joe were to win that title, people would have to take him seriously, and he’d be presented as someone with the same level of importance and credibility as the other three competitors in that match.