WWE: Samoa Joe’s US Title Win Was Awesome And A Long Time Coming

After losing Universal Title and WWE Championship feuds to Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles, respectively, Samoa Joe has finally won his first main roster title in WWE: the United States Championship.

Last week on WWE SmackDown, R-Truth made an “Open Challenge” for the United States Championship, which he won off of Shinsuke Nakamura – and later retained against Rusev. Truth ended up facing two opponents, but he somehow wiggled his way out of the match with the title still in his hands, defeating two formidable foes in Andrade and wrestling icon Rey Mysterio.

Tonight on SmackDown Live, Truth, once again, called for an “Open Challenge”, wanting to emulate his hero John Cena. But instead of facing, say, Cena, Truth had to defend the US Title against three opponents. Because not only did Mysterio and Andrade show up for more, but Samoa Joe’s music hit…and Truth knew he got more than he bargained for when “The Destroyer” came out.

The match was a thoroughly entertaining one, with Joe doing most of the damage, as expected. He dominated Andrade, Truth, and Mysterio with his scary blend of power and speed. Though Carmella and Zelina Vega briefly got involved, with Vega eating a superkick after hitting Truth with her trademark hurricanrana to the outside, this match was Joe’s to lose.\

And in the end, it was Joe who had his hands raised, winning the United States Championship after an exceptional TV match for the oft-neglected title. Joe’s win is his first championship win on the WWE main roster since debuting in early 2017, and while it isn’t the WWE Championship or Universal Championship, it’s a title Joe is capable of elevating – as long as WWE finally shows its serious about making the US Title feel important.

Joe will presumably head into WrestleMania 35 as the United States Champion, and there’s no shortage of potential opponents for him, including Mustafa Ali, who eliminated him in the Royal Rumble after Joe used Ali as something of a punching bag to make a statement on the rest of the roster. And speaking of Cena, his WrestleMania outlook is completely up in the air. Joe vs. Cena has always been a dream match, and Joe defeating Cena, who once made the US Title feel like a huge deal, could be a great moment. Plus, in his electric post-match promo on SmackDown with Kayla Braxton, Joe made sure to go out of his way to call out Cena…

Projecting Joe’s opponents for WrestleMania will become an easier task after Fastlane – and maybe another episode of SmackDown – so, for now, it’s all about celebrating a well-earned moment for the Samoan Submission Machine. Joe is a legitimate legend of the wrestling business for everything he’s accomplished in ROH and Impact Wrestling/TNA, and he’s also a former NXT Champion. He’s also already established himself as one of WWE’s best talkers, in addition to being an acclaimed wrestler inside the ring.

R-Truth’s reign as US Champion was short but exciting, and Joe could give us a long, meaningful, and entertaining reign as champ.

He’s finally won the big one. This was Joe’s, as he said, “unanswered prayer”.