8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 6)

3. Joe’s Solid Promo

samoa joe raw
WWE.com

Samoa Joe has had a hell of a ride into WWE. Originally signed as a part-timer, he ended up becoming a two-time NXT champion and last week debuted on Raw serving as Triple H’s avatar by taking out Seth Rollins.

Monday night, Joe was dubbed “the hottest free agent of the New Era” and officially signed with Raw. A less-than-enthusiastic Mick Foley said he supported Joe, but he didn’t approve of how he got his contract. That’s when Joe took the mic and noted that it had taken him 18 years to get to WWE and that it was Triple H who opened the doors to make it happen, so he had no problem being loyal to Hunter.

Joe also put the locker room on notice, threatening to hurt everyone’s heroes, choke them out and then do it again. It was a solid formal debut for the Samoan Submission Machine, and having him stand toe-to-toe with Roman Reigns vaulted him right to the top of the pecking order.

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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 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.