10 Times Modern WWE Stars FINALLY Felt Like Big Deals
4. Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe suffered a dismal start to life on the main roster; brought in as Triple H's Destroyer, he injured Seth Rollins on his first night in, squashed Sami Zayn in an overlong Fastlane '17 match where most expected something really special, missed WrestleMania 33, thus casting him as an also-ran from the jump, before entering an only-good performance with fellow struggler Seth Rollins at Payback. His awesome character work opposite Brock Lesnar undermined at the Great Balls Of Fire payoff, the fearsome Joe subsequently meandered on RAW, ravaged by inattentive booking and injury.
Was Joe simply too late entering a company not predisposed to pushing his like in the first place?
No: Joe's return promo, on the post-WrestleMania 34 RAW, was an evisceration of the Roman Reigns character. Emitting a guttural roar borderline inhuman in its intensity, Joe blasted Reigns as a failure. Jake Roberts always said that you don't have to raise your voice to convey villainy, but this never felt like Joe was over-compensating: this was Joe in his resting state of primal badassery.
It was so intimidating, so bone-chilling, that Joe withstood the PPV loss, even a deathly dull match, to emerge from the association with Reigns as the most credible and entertaining heel on the main roster.