Report: Samoa Joe suffered a concussion on WWE Raw

Samoa Joe competed in a WWE Raw Tag Team Title match on Monday with Kevin Owens as his partner, but he was unable to finish the match due to a reported concussion.

After shining on the WWE Raw commentary team to close 2019, Samoa Joe became a key part of the show’s main event storyline. He stood up to the heel trio of Seth Rollins and the Authors of Pain, which has now become a quartet with the inclusion of the desperate Buddy Murphy, who went 0-3 in his feud with Aleister Black.

Joe and his new close friend Kevin Owens had a Raw Tag Team Title match against Rollins and Murphy. The heel duo won the tag titles off the Viking Raiders on the go-home episode of Raw before the Royal Rumble, and they were able to retain the championships.

During the match, Joe went down after a dive to the outside and did not return to the ring. PW Insider’s Mike Johnson first reported that Joe suffered the injury during this spot and grabbed the back of his head. WWE medical officials pulled him from the match.

Now, the Wrestling Observer News’ Dave Meltzer reports that Joe did indeed suffer a concussion during the dive. He is now entering WWE’s concussion protocol.

It’s awful news for Joe, who was just returning from a broken thumb and has been his usual excellent self inside the ring and on the mic.

Concussions are tricky to predict, but hopefully the Samoan Submission Machine can return soon and doesn’t have any complications. Any brain injury is scary, but the positive is that WWE medical officials took him out of the match and Joe is in the protocol. That’s the ideal outcome, because it’s been rough watching performers wrestle through clear concussions.

In the meantime, we’ll see how Paul Heyman books this storyline with Owens against Rollins’ stable on Raw, since KO has lost his closest ally to injury.