8 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 23)

by Scott Carlson

1. Joe Is Gonna Kill You

AOP Samoa Joe
WWE.com

It was only a matter of time before Samoa Joe inserted himself into the action on Raw again.

After the United States Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins ended in a DQ thanks to AOP, the villains dragged the champ up to the announce desk and began clearing it off. But Joe didn’t budge, telling them that if he got up, it wasn’t to move, but to whoop AOP.

Rollins tried to play peacemaker, then ordered Akam and Rezar to finish Joe off, leading to a beatdown and slam through the announce desk. Joe had been warning everyone about this trio for the past couple weeks, so it only made sense that he’d get caught up in the action sooner or later.

Joe as a de-facto face is an interesting proposition, but it’s also a necessity at this point. There are plenty of top-level heels right now, but a dearth of believable top faces (Orton is tweener who seems to operate in his own space). Fans are more than ready to cheer on Samoa Joe, and it looks like we’ll get the chance now.

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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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.