6 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 1)

2. Joe, Roman Have Solid Match

samoa joe roman reigns
WWE.com

Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns had a PPV-worthy Intercontinental Championship bout Monday night that carried an interesting stipulation.

The old “title changes on DQ” stip has been done before, and it can really detract from the match, but it only came into play a few times, and it wasn’t overdone. Throughout the match, Joe dominated by attacking Reigns’ elbow, only for Roman to escape with the win after a spear.

If there was a complaint, that would be it: Roman’s entire arsenal in the waning moments was a series of Superman Punches and a spear. But that’s a minor gripe. They had a really good match that made Joe look just as worthy of the title as Reigns.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.