10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Samoa Joe

3. He Should've Been The One To Dethrone Brock Lesnar

Having defeated Goldberg to become WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 33, Brock Lesnar went on a mammoth 503- day reign with that title before ultimately dropping it to Roman Reigns at 2018's SummerSlam PPV.

The thing is, the Beast Incarnate should've have lost his Universal Championship just three months after defeating Da Man at 'Mania 33.

July 2017 saw Vince McMahon come up with the 'down with the kids' PPV idea of Great Balls of Fire. It was an awful title, the presentation of it was ridiculously cheesy, and Michael Cole forever screaming the show's title in the weeks leading up to the event was truly painful.

One of the few silver linings of Great Balls of Fire, though, is that it had Samoa Joe stepping up to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

The build to this contest was fantastic, with Joe positioned as an intimidating, legit badass who was Lesnar's equal. WWE had a genuinely white-hot hoss fight on their hands, with fans eager to see the Samoan Submission Machine step over Brock and take his prize.

At Great Balls of Fire, Lesnar would retain in a fun, physical encounter that gave Samoa Joe plenty of time to shine. The argument is, of course, that Joe suddenly had such momentum behind him that he should've emerged victorious on that night.

Still, the issue between Joe and Lesnar rumbled on, with Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman thrown in to serve up a four-way Universal Championship at the following month's SummerSlam. Again though, Lesnar would emerge victorious.

Whether at Great Balls of Fire or SummerSlam 2017, Samoa Joe was the perfect choice at the perfect time to beat Brock Lesnar.

Seriously, just watch this:

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

See more from Andrew