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

by Scott Carlson

1. Samoan Strong Showing

samoa joe roman reigns
WWE.com

Regardless of how he won, Samoa Joe won his debut WWE match against former three-time champion Roman Reigns, planting the Big Dog with a uranage suplex and pinning him.

Before their match even started, Joe showed that mean, sadistic streak he had in NXT, jumping Roman outside the ring and battering him, then continuing it during the match. Reigns fought back, but Joe kept coming. Eventually, Reigns gained the upper-hand, which is when Braun Strowman sauntered out to interrupt, distracting Roman long enough for Samoa Joe to drop him.

That debut match showed Joe battling the top guy on Raw and managing to defeat him after hanging tough with him. He looked like he belonged at the top of the card. Quibble over whether he should have won with Strowman’s interference, but this was a solid debut match for Joe.

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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.