The rise of Joe begins now. When Samoa Joe made his NXT debut way back at NXT: Unstoppable, the small vein in the IWC's head popped. Since then the results have been... mixed. He's put on a handful of good matches with the likes of Tyler Breeze and Baron Corbin, and won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, but he's yet to ascend to the heights that his ROH and TNA careers suggested he would. The standoffs he had with Kevin Owens came to naught, and there have been persistent rumours that he's never actually going to ascend to the main roster. Simply put, in his time with WWE, he's yet to have that marquee feud. Until now. Last night, Joe turned the way of the rotter after blindsiding Finn Balor post-match. He ran down to fend off Baron Corbin, before turning on the champ, eventually slamming him to the mat with a Muscle Buster. He even screamed into Balor's face, "I DID THIS TO YOU", so there's no doubt that it's a full turn. In fact, the Samoan looked unhinged as he retreated up the mat, and NXT did well to make the attack look brutal with exclusive footage of the fallout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gg2KtwkYAQ It's no secret that Vince wants Balor on the main roster ASAP (the company are behind him in a BIG way because of just how marketable the whole Demon thing has become) and a blockbuster feud with a similarly-storied, independent scene legend might be what they're using to take the title off him before he goes. Either way, exciting times.
