Samoa Joe makes his WWE main roster debut on Raw
Those who were disappointed that Samoa Joe didn’t appear at the Royal Rumble didn’t have to wait very long for him to make his main roster debut.
While appearing on Raw for the first time, Joe attacked Seth Rollins in the main event segment of Monday night’s show. The face-to-face confrontation between Rollins and Stephanie McMahon that had been advertised going into the night led to a promised collision between Rollins and Triple H later, but Joe blindsided Rollins before he could join Triple H in the ring.
The segment ended with Rollins passing out to the Coquina Clutch.
Joe’s debut had been speculated about for weeks as he’s been in a holding pattern in NXT since dropping the brand’s title to Shinsuke Nakamura for the second time last December. His only appearance at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio was when he was shown on camera sitting in the audience.
WWE also continued building to the inevitable Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar match at WrestleMania on Raw. Paul Heyman issued a challenge to Goldberg on behalf of Lesnar for WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, with WWE announcing that Goldberg would respond to them on next Monday’s show.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.