10. Samoa Joe Defeated Baron Corbin
Samoa Joe as "grizzled vet doing good business" in NXT is fascinating. It's like that time when the Crocketts bought out Mid-South and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams was on TBS TV having competitive matches against midcarders when we all wanted more. We're likely to get more out of Joe soon, but this era is fascinating. Samoa Joe made Baron Corbin look like a competitive world-beater who's greater than the sum of his parts. If Joe's ultimately one day able to both carry the NXT brand on his broad shoulders as well as have compelling and competitive matches with just about everyone, then this whole "Joe to WWE" thing is beneficial, but ultimately much different than what we expected it to be.
Marcus K. Dowling
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Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
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