8 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Aug 10)

5. Joe Brings The Fire

Samoa Joe
WWE.com

Thank heavens that WWE has Samoa Joe on commentary to really bring a storyline together and add some heat to it.

Joe was in the ring to open Raw with the contract signing between Seth Rollins and Dominik Mysterio. The wrestler-turned-announcer didn’t hesitate to unload on Rollins, calling him sad and noting that he “got booed a couple of times and got all caught up in his feelings,” turning into the Monday Night Messiah.

The verbal lashing was important, because Dominik, while not bad for someone of his (lack of) experience level, is not to par with Joe or Seth. So Joe was called upon to deliver the fire necessary for a match like this. Joe’s promo allowed Rollins to get fired up and whine about how he had no choice but to become the Monday Night Messiah. That led to Dominik delivering a few lines, noting that his dream now is to kick Rollins’ a$$.

Can you imagine if Byron Saxton or Jerry Lawler was moderating this contract signing? There’s no way it would nearly as good.

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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.