7 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Raw Christmas Night (Dec 25)

2. Samoans Get Wild

samoa joe roman reigns
WWE.com

Of all the rivalries that have taken place this year, Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns is actually one of the better ones.

Few wrestlers have consistently given Roman as hard a time as Joe, with the Samoan Submission Machine putting Reigns down with the Coquina Clutch a few times and getting the drop on him on other occasions. Their encounters have been heated and physical, which is what you’d hope for given their reputations.

Monday, Joe and Roman tangled for the Intercontinental Championship. They had a good little match going before Reigns got disqualified for shoving the ref, which was a cheap DQ, but it showed Roman’s hot-headedness getting the better of him, and then he continued on that run, attacking Joe after the bell and trying to take out his shoulder.

Reigns has to have that edge to compete with Samoa Joe, and it worked well. This probably will set up a no-DQ match between them, which also could be very good.

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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.