WWE Superstar Shakeup: 3 Potential Title Changes
By Tim Sherry
Source: WWE.com
1. Samoa Joe Wins The WWE Championship
As alluded to in the previous slide, the Universal title picture is a mess. Brock Lesnar has held the title for nearly 400 days yet has only defended it five times. Quick math and granted, rounding up a little bit, he essentially defends the belt once every three months. That’s not good, especially in this age when there is more wrestling on TV than ever before. For instance, when Kevin Owens was champion, his reign was 188 days long and he defended the belt 7 times in that run. That’s about once per month which seems about right.
Throw in that the Roman Reigns is still being forced down wrestling fans throats in his quest for the belt and guys like Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, and the newly returning Bobby Lashley waiting in the wings, and it’s clear that the red brands title picture is tenuous at best.
So it must have been a breath of fresh air for Samoa Joe when he was traded to SmackDown Live. The former 2-time NXT champ and one of the greatest superstars in TNA history, “The Samoan Submission Machine” is clearly a main event, world champion caliber player and should be treated as such.
Not only does he now have more opportunity on Tuesday nights, he has, based on past experience, three ready-made feuds with the blue brands top stars. He battled Shinsuke Nakamura over the NXT title throughout the second half of 2016. And if you go even further back, between 2002 and 2006, he had a series of scintillating wars with Daniel Bryan under the Ring of Honor banner. A feud with either Bryan or Nakamura would be serious business.
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But undoubtedly the best potential feud for Joe is with former nemesis and current WWE Champ, AJ Styles. Two of the best wrestlers in TNA history, Joe and Styles started a feud back in 2005 that would be an off and on affair for the next eight years. Their time in a TNA ring produced some of the best matches of all-time for that company and helped put them on the map. Imagine five years later that feud could be rekindled in the WWE with the title on the line. A showdown between the two at SummerSlam would be epic and that’s exactly where this writer believes it’s heading. Joe will be champion before the Fall. Count on it.