Will Samoa Joe make an impact in WWE Royal Rumble match?
By Luke Norris
It’s being reported that Samoa Joe may be in line for a huge push on the main roster in WWE. Could he make his debut at the Royal Rumble?
With names like The Undertaker, Goldberg and Brock Lesnar, this year’s WWE Royal Rumble match is shaping up to be one of the biggest and best in the 30-year history of the event. And that’s not even mentioning superstars like Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Braun Strowman and Chris Jericho. While many more big names are likely to be added in the upcoming weeks, along with the traditional surprise entrant or two, there’s one more name that could possibly be thrown into the mix in San Antonio: Samoa Joe.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer is reporting that there’s “an idea on the table” for Samoa Joe to make his main roster debut very soon, a debut that would come “with a major push” that would include being placed in one of the “top few matches” at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando. Now, while this is merely a rumor at this point, this has the potential to be huge. So let’s get into this a little bit.
The timing of all this makes perfect sense. After months and months of feuding with Shinsuke Nakamura over the NXT Championship, that program has come to an end as Nakamura is set to face Bobby Roode at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio the night before the Royal Rumble. But Samoa Joe has really been given no direction since that whole thing wrapped up and there’s probably a reason for that. He’s been in NXT for more than a year-and-a-half now and there’s really nothing else for the 37-year-old to accomplish there. He came in, made an impact, helped further build the brand, put on some absolutely outstanding matches and became the first-ever two-time NXT champ. It’s time for Samoa Joe to move on and move up. And his debut needs to happen at the Royal Rumble.
Just think of the possibilities here. First of all, the live crowd would go absolutely nuts when his music hits. I would think that the reaction would be similar to what happened when AJ Styles debuted a year ago, and while the surprise element of a Samoa Joe entry into the Royal Rumble may be dwindling by the day, it would still be a great moment. Imagine this: we’re through 10 or 12 entries, Brock Lesnar has eliminated everyone else and is standing alone in the middle of the ring waiting for his next victim. While everyone in the arena and everyone watching on the WWE Network is expecting Goldberg to come out, Samoa Joe’s music hits instead. Tell me you wouldn’t mark out like crazy for something like that. Joe enters the ring and he and Brock just go at it for two solid minutes, fighting to a stalemate as the countdown begins. Then Goldberg hits the ring. Now you’ve got three absolute monsters in Samoa Joe, Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg all staring each other down before a massive brawl breaks out. You’ve got 60,000 strong in the Alamodome doing the “THIS IS AWESOME!” thing and Twitter would likely explode. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
Now, I would love to see Samoa Joe versus Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania but it’s likely that Lesnar has another date with Goldberg lined up and those two will probably somehow eliminate one another from the Rumble to keep that program going. So Samoa Joe could wreak some havoc on the other participants and make it to the final four or five before being tossed out, possibly by somebody like Braun Strowman or The Undertaker, both of whom would make good opponents for him down the line. Or what about one more crazy scenario that I came up with that I think could be absolutely … PHENOMENAL. Yeah, you know where I’m going.
I think it’s safe to assume that most of us are thinking that John Cena is going to win his 16th title in his match against AJ Styles, right? So Styles loses, turns around and enters the Royal Rumble later that night. He’d come in late as to be able to rest up a bit and Samoa Joe is still in there. Just imagine AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, two of the biggest names in TNA history, battling it out in the middle of a WWE ring. Come on, this stuff just writes itself. And while this is a huge long shot, Samoa Joe somehow wins the Royal Rumble. He shows up the following Tuesday night on SmackDown Live and challenges Cena to a championship match at WrestleMania. But hold on. AJ Styles still has his rematch clause and believes that he should be the one to challenge Cena on the grandest stage of them all. So they set up a No. 1 contender’s match at Elimination Chamber, which ends in a draw, a double countout or something like that, and you then build a Triple Threat match at WrestleMania 33 between John Cena, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. Three faces of a generation in one ring for the biggest prize in the industry. Yes, I know this is just fantasy booking but I’d go crazy for something like this.
Again, this is merely speculation at this point but it makes all the sense in the world to bring Samoa Joe to the main roster now and the Royal Rumble is the perfect place to make it happen. Would you like to see Samoa Joe make his debut in San Antonio? And how exactly would you book it?